


Land of Dust and Grimm

by ParadoxVictor



Category: Homestuck, RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Game, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Boarding School, Crossover, Fantasy, Gen, Science Fiction, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-15 18:53:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11812113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadoxVictor/pseuds/ParadoxVictor
Summary: Two boys with similar names and a girl with a giant scythe. When Roman Torchwick and Spades Slick robbed that Dust shop, they accidentally sparked a legend. A story of friendship, weapons, hardships, conflict, and stupid shenanigans. But ultimately, a tale about three young leaders and their loyal teams."It doesn't matter that they're Faunus friendly, Betty Crocker Inc. is still a sleazy corporation!"





	1. Red Hood, Blue Hood

“Hey, I’m leaving to go buy some Dust, do you need something?” a raven haired young man said by the door of his home as he threw on his blue hoodie jacket.

“Yes, actually. Could you buy me some cake mix? We’re running out” a serious-sounding voice came from the house’s kitchen.

“No way, dad! I’m not gonna help feed your addiction. Buy it yourself” the young man huffed as he opened the door.

“Standing up against your old man, aren’t you. You’ve grown up so much. I’m proud of you, son” a teary sounding response resounded from the kitchen, causing the young man at the door to roll his eyes.

“Do we have to go through this every time?”.

“What, tired of your old man trying to have a good time? What an ungrateful son I have raised” the man appeared at the the door, his white business suit covered by an apron with the sayings “Remnant’s Best Dad”. His usually blank and serious face was replaced by a grin as he took a drag from his pipe, and a fedora matching his suit was firmly planted on his head.

That prompted the boy at the door to smirk back “I thrive on your misery, dad” he said with a chuckle “But seriously, do you want anything?” he asked, narrowing his eyes when his dad smiled.

“Just that you come home before dinner, John” the man said with softening features.

“No problemo, sir” the boy named John saluted as he finally stepped out of the house “See ya later!”

“Take care, son!”

These last words came slightly muffled, as John had already closed the door behind him, adjusting his glasses on his face before shivering slightly. The night air was quite chilly today, prompting John to bring his hood up, the windsock-like accessory blowing in the wind.

Looking up at the shattered moon with azure eyes, John squinted. For some reason he felt like tonight was going to be a long night. That was probably just his nerves talking. Ever since he got accepted into Beacon, time felt like it was going slower since he just couldn’t wait to start his term there.

His acceptance had came as no surprise to his dad who “always believed in him, and was just so proud”. Bah, he would’ve already lashed out at his old man’s jokes if there weren’t always a big chunk of truth in his teasing. No matter what John decided to do, there was an overwhelming amount of support coming from his father.

If he wanted to be a comedian? Dad’s proud of ya. If he wanted to become an office worker? Dad’s totally proud. A baker? Proud. A member of the White Fang? He’d be impressed of how John would manage to join, being a human and all. Also probably proud.

So when John decided to be a huntsman, the profession dad Egbert had retired from, the support was staggering. But so were the standards. If he was to risk his life daily, then John had to be the best of the best.

That meant joining Beacon. And to be accepted, Dadbert used every bit of his mangrit to beat John into shape. And after everything he went through, his acceptance letter was almost a forgone conclusion. He did really well on his entrance test, _and_ got a letter of recommendation from his fatherly teacher.

The direct participation in having John accepted didn’t stop Dadbert from having his pride swell, but that’s just a quirk that would never change, and John just got used to it.

After his letter arrived, he immediately accessed to CCT computer at his home to contact his friends and see if they had gotten accepted as well.

John, being homeschooled, never really had the opportunity to make friends in Vale, but him having a computer with cross continental transmission potential at his home really broadened his world to find friends.

He ended up finding such friends; and friends they were for, even though they’ve never met personally, they’ve been talking ever since they were thirteen years old.

Dave was from Atlas, Jade was from Vacuo and Rose was from Mistral. John came to befriend Dave through gaming forums and then the two girls through Dave.

Dave liked to seem cool and aloof, but was quite the big nerd, something John noticed immediately with how opinionated he was about the X-Ray and Vav movie. He was quite skilled at producing music, and quite average at rapping, both things confirmed whenever he sent John his tracks. He liked to spend a lot of time online to escape the pestering of his older brother who always had some “training” or “cool ironic shit” to show him. Dave used to admire his bro, but now he grew tired of his attitude, as the “training” was mostly one-sided beatdowns, and the “cool ironic stuff” was just strange most of the time.

Rose on the other hand was genuinely witty and sarcastic, often engaging in banter with Dave and always coming on top. One of her main hobbies was knitting and she had quite a taste for literature of any kind, but was mostly interested in stories about wizards. She also had quite the fascination with Grimm zoology, often trying to understand their behaviors, discover different types and learn more about the Ancient Ones: Grimm that have fought and survived for so long that they gained sentience and acquired intelligence. They were probably just myths, but Rose didn’t think so. She wanted to learn more.

And last, but not least, Jade was a dog faunus from Vacuo. Her disposition was as sunny as Vacuo itself and she was quite proud of her heritage no matter what others thought of her. She was raised by her human grandfather, an expert sharpshooter that taught her all she knew. She was also quite a skilled musician, playing the dust bass like a pro. But the one thing that she took real pride in was her gardening skills. Being able to grow stuff in a desertic place like Vacuo was a big challenge, but her greenhouses thrived like no one could ever expect, with her biggest production being of pumpkins. Her green thumb was incontestably legendary, much like her aim.

The four of them never met, but that would soon change as they have planned for a long time to go to the same hunter school when they finally reached the right age. And after not much need for convincing, they all settled for Beacon as Dave wanted to escape his brother’s shadow in Atlas, Jade wanted to come to a better climate to learn more gardening techniques, and Rose simply wanted to travel out of Mistral for a change.

So on that day when he showed his letter through the CCT computer, he couldn’t help but smile widely when he was shown three other similar letters back to him.

So now he was out to buy Dust for his weapon. Can’t start a good school year without the essential supplies. And what better school supply than fuel crystals with huge potential for destruction, am I right?

It’s normally hard to find a Dust shop open up after nightfall, but John knew a place, From Dust Till Dawn. He was friendly with the old man that owned the shop as he always hung around to read the Jokers Weekly, where he picked up practical jokes and magic tricks to play on his friends in the future. Meanwhile he just practiced them on his dad.

John entered through the shop’s door to see himself directly facing the cashier. The old man behind the counter’s face lit up with a smile as soon as John’s foot stepped in the establishment.

“Hey pops, how’s the health” the young man asked with a grin on his face as he approached.

“Oh, you know, same as always. These old bones may be getting fragile, but I’m still up and kicking. Will be for at least twenty more years if I say so myself” the old man smiled as John giggled a bit “So, are you going to the back to waste time? New edition of your favourite magazine has just arrived”

“Nope!” John said cheerfully “This time around I’m just after that sweet, sweet Dust. I’m suddenly in the need of some more” he paused as his smile grew “... because I just got accepted into Beacon. Isn’t that awesome!?” he couldn’t help but jump up and down a bit, using the countertop as leverage.

“Hey, don’t do that! The glass might break” the old man admonished.

“Oops, sorry” John stopped and rubbed his head sheepishly as he looked down at the glass showcase, dozens of different types of Dust crystals on display.

With a tired sigh, the old man relented “No problem, John, just be more careful in the future. But still, I’m proud of you, sonny. Entering Beacon is no small feat” the old man smiled “Now, what are you in the need of?”

“Just some medium cut crystals. The ones with eight sides you know? Of as many kinds you have. Surprise me, even. If I don’t know what’s coming, neither will the Grimm” he whispered the last part in a conspiratorial tone.

“Still going for the unpredictable fighting style?” the shop’s owner asked with a raised eyebrow as he started picking up crystals from below the counter.

“Hey, the enemies can’t figure out what I’m doing if I can’t either” John joked “Not that I never know what I’m doing. I always kind of know vaguely what’s up during a fight. Besides, I can always just strike normally if I’m feeling insecure about the odds”

“Whatever you say, kiddo” he said putting a bag filled with crystals shaped like eight-sided dice “That will be two hundred and fifty lien” the old man finished with a smirk.

“Jeez, that was _not_ the type of surprise I was asking for” John complained as he reached for his wallet. He knew from past experience that Dust wasn’t cheap, but this was his first time buying a large quantity. Nothing better to put a hole on your funds, that’s for sure. “I’m not sure if my wallet will survive being a huntsman-in-training”

“Don’t be too bummed, sonny. When you start at Beacon the school will cover most of your ammo expenses. That includes Dust crystals” the wizened shop owner empathized while graciously accepting John’s money and handing him the bag.

“Shit, man, I really hope that’s true, because that was half my allowance, and the month just started” the future hunter-in-training complained as he produce a yellow and blue box-like thing from his hip. Placing it on the countertop one could see that the box seemed folded into itself and had a big transparent red dome on the top of it.

Opening up the dome, John poured all the different types of crystals into the compartment inside and closed it up before placing it on his hip again.

“Sooo… you said that Jokers Weekly has arrived?” John asked with obvious eagerness.

“Knock yourself out, sonny” the elderly man couldn’t help but smile.

“Thanks, pops!” John exclaimed as he half ran to magazine racks.

Arriving there he spotted a relatively familiar figure cloaked in red. She wore a black and red dress with a corset, similarly colored combat boots, and pantyhose covering her legs.

Oh, and of course the aforementioned hooded cloak.

He has never talked to this girl, nor had he actually seen her face well enough, but she was there quite a lot. He once called out to her in hopes of making a friend that actually lived in the same kingdom as him, but she just ignored him. That didn’t really motivate him to continue his efforts, although he does see her often enough to make him want to try again.

Sighing, John grabbed the magazine and looked at the clock. He had around half an hour to read a bit before heading home if he had any intention of arriving home on time for dinner.

As soon as he opened the magazine, though, he heard a smarmy sounding voice coming from the entrance say “Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?”

Another voice, more gruff and hoarse this time, seemed to snort “You make it sound like we spent the whole night searching instead of just heading straight here”

“Just point a gun at the man, Slick” the smarmy voice seemed to sigh.

Turning around to get a peek at the newcomer, he got a glimpse of a gangster-looking, eye-patch wearing dude with crisp suit and fedora pointing a gun at old pops. One could observe that the hand holding the gun seemed to be robotic in nature.

As a reaction, John pressed himself against the shelf behind him, instinctively hiding from the criminals.

“Please, just take my lien and leave” he heard the old man beg.

The apparent ringleader, a redhead with black eyeliner, a white suit and a matching bowler hat, shushed the elderly shop owner “Calm down. We’re not here for your money” he turned to his lackeys “Grab the Dust”.

The lackey’s then produced a storage box and placed it on the counter-top before opening it up and retrieving fuel cylinders from it. The men then directed themselves to the Dust dispensers at both sides of the shop absorbing the ground dust of the dispensers into the fuel cylinders.

Meanwhile, bowler hat dude talked to old pops “Crystals” he demanded “Burn, uncut” he specified

Then one of the lackeys seemed to take notice of the hooded girl reading her Weapons Magazine and called out to her as he pulled out a blade “Alright kid, put your hands where I can see them.

And to John’s surprise, she ignored him too. Wow, was this girl that stuck up? Ignoring a random dude you don’t know is one thing, but ignoring a mugger is a whole ‘nother level. Does she have a death wish or something?

“Hey, I said hands in the air. You got a death wish or something”

Words straight out of John’s thoughts, thug. Good to see they were so in sync.

The man strode over to the girl and pulled her by the shoulder, lowering her hood as a result, revealing… headphones.

Sheesh, no wonder she wasn’t responding. That’s probably what happened when John tried to make friends with her at first. He sure got the wrong idea on the girl.

And speaking about the girl, gosh damn she was cute. Her hair was a deep shade of red that looked almost black save for the tips. Her silver eyes were contoured with purple eyeshadow, and a cute button nose placed itself on the center of her face.

The thug, patience seemingly waning, pointed to his ears, prompting the girl to remove her headphones.

“Yes?” she asked curtly.

“I said, put your hands in the air, now!” the thug repeated himself.

“Are you… robbing me?” the girl asked with certain uncertainty.

“Yes!” the thug confirmed, filled with exasperation.

“Oh…” the girl drawled out, her eyes narrowing and a smirk coming upon her face.

Then, out of the fucking left field, completely unexpectedly, and frankly in a pretty badass manner, the girl simply raised her knee and kicked outwards, sending the man flying.

“Holy shit” John whisper shouted.

Bowler hat dude, seeing the commotion, sent another one of his lackeys at the silver-eyed girl.

“Freeze!” the grunt yelled, pointing a gun at her and charging up a shot.

Just when John _thought_ about doing something, and blinking in the process, he could no longer see the girl. Her disappearance was immediately followed by the sound of shattering glass.

Abandoning any premise of stealth, John walked out of cover, peeking out of the destroyed window to see the girl getting up from a crouch, a giant red scythe unfolding itself over her shoulder as she smirked before furrowing her brow and giving the scythe some spins before locking in on a battle stance.

“Woah, that’s fucking awesome” John couldn’t help but say out loud, causing the gangsters to look back at him for a split second, eyepatch dude focusing on him.

Bowler hat man didn’t seem to share his opinion as he drawled out in a bewildered tone “Okay…” he looked at his cronies “get her” he prompted with continued bewilderment.

At that prompt, the mooks sprung into action, and so did John.

Pressing a button on the box-like object on his hip, the thing began to unfold just like the scythe had before. From its side the box sprung up a handle with a rotatable grip, which he immediately grabbed. A hook-like trigger was also attached to the grip.

The handle extended itself a bit at the same time the box’s blue bottom expanded into a hammer’s face. From the yellow middle sprouted a curved spearhead aligned with the handle. And on the side opposite to the face lay the red dome filled with the now glowing Dust crystals.

Now with a weapon in hand, John rushed into the fray, paying attention to the red girl’s maneuvers with her scythe. She was absolutely killing it, planting her weapon on the ground and spinning around it to kick a goon in the face.

Immediately after that she jumped forward, holding her weapon horizontally over her back with both hands. She squeezed a trigger firing a shot that made her gain momentum for a spin attack that sent two mooks flying high, before smashing a third one with the blunt side of her scythe.

Holy shit, she was good.

Too distracted by the awesome, John didn’t notice he was being attacked until he was hit square on the cheek with a cast iron horse head.

Reeling from the sudden attack, John tried to deflect the second attack coming his way, succeeding only partially and feeling the shock of the blow on his arms. This brief respite, however, gave him the opportunity to catch a glimpse of his attacker.

That being, of course, the eyepatch dude with the robot arm. The man smirked as he raised his cast iron walking stick and struck too fast for John’s eyes to follow, hitting him square in the stomach with the horse head part of it yet again.

“Well, Red, I think we can all say it’s been an eventful evening, and as much as I’d love to stick around, I’m afraid this is where we part wa- argh”

Skidding right out the door, he heard the smarmy voice of of the bowler hat guy talking until it was interrupted by a yelp and the sound of weapon being misfired.

Two bodies became tangled on the ground as one fell over the other.

“Augh, get off me, dude” John complained as he pushed the white suit gangster off of him as he tried to stand up and create some distance between them, his hood coming off”

“Are you ok?” the red caped girl asked him. Looking back at her he could notice her head was tilted inquisitively as well as some some mild concern on her face.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just got a bit blindsided” he laughed sheepishly “Jeez, how embarrassing” he then whispered to himself.

“Slick, would it hurt you to have some gods-damned battlefield awareness” the white-suited gangster growled as he got up and glared at his partner as the latter walked out of the door

“You wouldn’t have been hit if you didn’t spend precious time taunting teenage girls, Torchwick” the man, apparently named Slick, bit back “The way you talk so much, they see your attacks coming from a mile away. Glasses boy over there didn’t see me coming ‘cause I know how to keep quiet. Ain’t that right kiddo?” the fedora-wearing gangster grinned at John.

“Yeah, I mean, I guess you’re kind of right about that” John conceded distractedly before shaking his head and gripping his hammer tight “But screw that! Give old pops his Dust back before I come over there and make you”

“Oh, I’m trembling in my boots, kiddo” Slick mocked before quickly pulling out a white revolver and shooting at John’s feet.

Before any of both teens could react, a spiky ice wall exploded towards them, forcing them both jump back to avoid damage.

John then rotated the grip on his hammer and rushed the ice, pulling the trigger as his hammer slammed itself into the ice. Thunder resounded as lightning shot out from the weapon, causing spiderweb cracks to spread all over the wall. Less than a second later the wall shattered, being reduced to what basically qualified as shaved ice.

“Well, that wasn’t what I had intended, but it worked!” John exclaimed excitedly before noticing that there was no one standing beyond the wall anymore “Hey, where did they go?”

“Over there!” the redheaded scythe wielder beside him yelled, pointing out at two figures climbing up a ladder at the side of a building.

“Hey pops, you okay if we go after them?” John asked the shop owner.

“Give ‘em hell, sonny” the old man nodded tiredly.

“After you” John told the girl with a smile that she reciprocated as she ran and leaped over the building in a single bound.

John soon followed, coming beside her as she yelled out at the criminals “Hey!”

“Persistent” he could hear the Torchwick guy grumble out.

“Heh, if I didn’t know any better I’d say the squirt has a crush on you, Torchwick” his partner, Slick, joked as said squirt yelled indignantly.

Before Torchwick could rebuff Slick any longer, a Bullhead rose from from below the building and opened its door for the gangsters to step in.

Once inside, Torchwick turned on his heel and smiled evilly “Red, Blue. It’s end of the line for you two” he said as he chucked a raw Burn crystal at their feet and fired an explosive shot from his cane, resulting in an even bigger explosion.

John braced for an impact that never came, as a caped figure appeared in front of them both and shielded them from the blast

Whooping and laughing at his apparent success at killing two teenagers, Torchwick frowned when he looked again to see stern green eyes glaring at him.

“Hoo, have a look at that fine dame” Slick commented loudly beside Torchwick, eyeing the new arrival.

Not appreciating Slick’s comment, said dame furrowed her stern brow even further and started shooting purple projectiles at the Bullhead, causing both gangsters to stagger.

Torchwick then rushed inside the ship’s cockpit and after a moment a shadowed figure stepped out from the cockpit in his place.

As a reaction, the obvious huntress in front of the kids threw what kind of looked like a spell, causing a storm cloud to appear over the airship. With another swish of her weapon, deadly ice spikes started to rain upon the thing.

Slick fired a couple of shots at the huntress in an attempt to make her lose concentration, which stopped the deadly rain for a split second.

That was more than enough time to allow for the shadowed newcomer to start shooting fireballs at them, which gave Slick an opportunity to retreat like his partner.

The fireball were deflected by the huntress before them, only for it to apparently splatter on the ground, and then rising as a pillar of fire that the huntress expertly dodged.

Gathering the rubble from the explosion with her apparent magic, the experienced huntress constructed an arrow and shot it towards the criminals.

The shadowed woman attempted to destroy the arrow only to have it reform and continue towards them.

The only thing that saved them was some expert reflexes coming from the pilot, who managed to deflect the rubble with the top of the airship.

The huntress wasn’t done yet, apparently, for she made the rubble circulate the airship like snakes ready to lunge.

The fire lady wasn’t having it, apparently, and caused a fire shockwave that dispersed all and any semblance of a threat those ‘snakes’ could’ve portrayed.

When it appeared that they were starting to get away, the girl beside him started firing her scythe in gun form as a last ditch effort.

Sadly the fire lady seemed to be able to deflect her shots with only the palm of her hands.

Then with a gesture, she rigged the ground below them to explode, making John roll forward to avoid it, and making the huntress have to pull the red girl alongside her.

 

The red girl stumbled, and the huntress stopped, but John trudged forward, intent on bringing that Bullhead down.

Seeing this, the fire lady shot another one of her fireballs at John, but he was prepared.

Praying to Monty for some good luck, he turned the grip on his handle and pulled the trigger as he swung at the fireball.

Fortunately, luck was on his side today as his swing came with anti-gravity enhancement, creating a repulsive field around his hammer that sent the fireball directly back to sender.

He noticed a slight widening of the eyes coming from the mysterious fire lady, as she apparently hadn’t expected that. He grinned at his chance before his hopes were dashed as she simply threw another fireball to stop the one he sent back.

With nothing more he could do to stop them, John stopped on his tracks and sighed as the Bullhead closed its doors and flew away.

“So close” John lamented as he hung his head low, weapon retreating to its compact form.

The sound of someone clearing their throat prompted him to turn, only to be met with a cold green orbs giving him a stern look. The woman who saved them had light blonde hair gathered in a neat bun, and a swirly fringe framing her face. She wore a white blouse, black pants, a black corset, and librarian glasses. She really owned her look and would not look out of place shushing you for being rowdy. The only thing uncommon about her appearance was her stylishly tattered black and purple cape.

The words came out of both teen’s mouths in unison “You’re a huntress” they concluded.

“Thanks for saving us. That explosion would’ve hurt bad” John told the woman with gratitude, causing his impromptu partner to nod empathetically.

“Yeah, and what you did with your weapon, with the laser beams, and the storm clouds!” the girl gushed, filling John with energy himself.

“Yeah, and how you gathered the rubble from the explosions and sent it at them like an arrow, and then made it slither around the Bullhead like a snake. It was so awesome! Kind of like magic” he added.

“Was that your semblance?” both teens asked in unison yet again.

Their excitement seemed to make the serious-looking woman hesitate before answering.

“Yes” she said curtly, making John’s smile widen.

“ _Sweet_ ” he breathed out.

His partner nodded empathetically before turning to the huntress with an eager look “Can I have your autograph?”

That sentence seemed to snap the older woman out off her hesitation as her eyes narrowed “No. The only thing you’re getting is a trip to the police station with me, do you hear me young lady? This reckless endangerment will not be treated lightly” the woman told the girl in an admonishing tone.

John could swear that he _heard_ the red girl’s mood deflating as her face fell.

Instinctively, he backed away, not wanting to be caught up on this punishment.

As if sensing his fear, the woman’s eyes snapped back at him almost immediately after he took the first step “That means you too, young man.”

John sighed. It seemed like he wasn’t going to be home on time for dinner today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Welcome to the Land of Dust and Grimm! Here you'll find the adventures of the Beta Kids would have if they had been born in the world of Remnant! Of course they are not there in a vacuum, so that means this fic will also explore their interactions and relationships with teams RWBY and JNPR, as well as the rest of Beacon. 
> 
> There used to be a different end note but it's now irrelevant so don't worry about it. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy your stay!


	2. Get Out of Jail Free Card

“Do I really have to be here?” came a complaint from the raven-haired boy beside her “I kind of promised my dad that I wouldn’t take too long, and my dinner is probably getting cold, so I think I should be on my wa-” he tried giving an excuse while attempting to leave his seat using the table in front of him for leverage.

“If I recall correctly, Mr. Egbert,” the woman interrupted “you were just as recklessly involved at trying to take down those criminals as Miss Rose, so it would be wise for you to remain seated and to keep your mouth shut” the woman warned coldly, causing the boy to simply gulp and nod.

“Now,” the woman said, clearing her throat and pacing around “I know the reasons why you did what you did, so there will be no harsh punishment. If it were up to me you both would be sent back home with a pat on the back…” the huntress paused

Ruby dared to smile hopefully at that.

“And a slap on the wrist!” The woman continued, smacking her crop on the table making the two teenagers flinch, with Ruby yelping as well.

“But… there’s someone here that would like to meet you.”

Stepping aside, the huntress gave way to white-haired man that stepped into the room. Despite his hair color, he didn’t look to be that old, with stylish circular shades sitting below his line of sight, a green scarf decorated with a cross on his neck, moss colored overcoat, vest and pants, and a belt holding up said pants. She recognised him immediately as Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy.

He was also holding up a plate of cookies and a mug of coffee on his hands, the first being something on which Ruby’s eyes immediately locked on.

She felt her stomach rumble. The girl was pretty sure she wasn’t hungry, but with those heavenly treats in front of her, her body suddenly felt the physical need to consume them. Damn you, Pavlov!

“Ruby Rose” the man hummed, taking the girl away from her stupor, and approached.

Leaning forward, he seemed to quickly take in the details on her face “You… have silver eyes” he commented the obvious, as if making a huge discovery about her by figuring that out.

Which, of course, confused the girl immensely as she shifted her eyes a bit, stuttering out a “Uh-umm…”

Before things could become more awkward for the young redhead, the man let his eyes wander from her face and to the right, falling upon the fourth occupant of the room.

“And John Egbert” he hummed out the name, taking in the appearance of the boy before him. The process was as quick with him as it was with her, and this time Ozpin had a small smile on his face. Curiously enough he didn’t comment on the color of his eyes, choosing instead to say “Your father is quite the man. I used to work with him back in the day. Has he ever told you about that?”

The boy seemed surprised, apparently not expecting that topic. His blue eyes widened noticeably behind his glasses in the same proportion as a smile grew on his face.

“For real!?” he asked, getting a nod of confirmation from the Beacon headmaster “Woah, that’s so awesome! Dad doesn’t really talk about his life as a huntsman before he retired, so I figured it had been kinda average. But he worked with you personally? That’s some grade A badassery!”

“Yes, he was quite the ‘badass’ as you so put it. Never met another man that could kill Grimm by hitting them on the face with a cake” Ozpin’s small smile grew a bit at the memory he was apparently reminiscing about “Shame he retired. But I can see he did it for good a reason. He seems to raised you well for you to jump to action like that for the purpose of helping” the man said pulling up a scroll showing battle footage with John’s highlights “I also gather he took care of your training?”

John, Ruby repeated in her head to get it memorized, nodded nodded in response to Ozpin’s question. “Yup, he’s taught me everything I know. I never went to any combat school before, but managed to enter Beacon anyway thanks to him” he told the headmaster.

So he’s managed to get into Beacon just with the training his dad gave him? Wow, the man must be a good teacher. Maybe just as good as her uncle Qrow!

“I know. I signed your acceptance papers myself afterall. I’m looking forward to see how you improve there”

“Now back to you, Miss Rose” Ozpin said while the huntress behind him held up a scroll with  _ her _ highlights of the altercation with the bandits “Where did you learn to do this?”

“S-Signal Academy?” she stuttered out caught off guard by Ozpin’s sudden interest in her again, but tried to give a confident smile that was betrayed by the uncertainty of her tone.

Ugh, why does she have to be so awkward?

“ _ They _ taught you how to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?” the headmaster asked with a rather skeptical tone in his voice. Is it that hard to believe?

“Well, one teacher in particular” she tried clarifying as the man laid the plate of cookies in front of her.

“I see” the man intoned, but she wasn’t paying attention to that anymore. No, her eyes could only focus on the marvelous baked goods in front of her. Looking up at the man as if asking for permission, she grabbed a cookie and ate it entirely in a single bit.

It was a big cookie too, and John, the boy beside her, looked thoroughly impressed. He seemed like he wanted to say something but was stopped by Ruby shoving another cookie at her own face.

And another.

And another.

She was downing those circles of deliciousness like a starving woman, her companion watching on in intrigued amusement.

Ozpin apparently wasn’t done talking to her, though, as he continued with his line of thought “It’s just that I’ve only seen one other scythe wielder of that skill before. A dusty old crow” he clarified.

Ruby perked up at that “Uhm... zas muh unkel!” she tried to say with a full mouth, causing a snort to come from her right.

Blushing in slight embarrassment from that, she swallowed and cleaned her mouth of crumbs using her arm “Sorry,” she apologized quickly before continuing with previous enthusiasm “That’s my uncle Qrow. He’s a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing, but now I’m all like  _ woo watcha _ !”

Ruby started making kung fu noises and moves in a very underwhelming manner compared to her actual skills, earning this time an empathetic laugh from the blue clad lad watching her exchange with Ozpin.

This time she laughed along with her own joking display, looking back and forth between both males’ amused expressions.

“So I’ve noticed,” Ozpin commented, referring to the video “And what’s is an adorable girl such as yourself doing in a school designed to train warriors?” he asked as he took a seat in front of her, holding his hands together in front of his face in a calculating manner.

This time all signs of mirth exited Ruby’s expression as she put on a very serious and determined face “Well… I want to be a huntress” she explained simply, thinking about her mother and her ideals. Ruby was too young to remember when she died or what she was like, but from what she’d heard from Yang, her dad, and Qrow, Summer Rose was a heck of a woman. And Ruby wanted to be like her. Help people, fight the Grimm. That’s all she wants.

“You want to slay monsters” Ozpin sumrised a bit crudely, but there was no way for him to figure out what she was thinking. But he wasn’t wrong.

“Yeah,” she nodded in admittance “And I only have two more years left of training at Signal, and then I’m going to apply to Beacon,” she started “And, you see, my sister is starting there this year and she’s trying to become a huntress, but also I’m trying to become a huntress, because I wanna help people! And my parents always taught us to help others, so I thought ‘well, might as well make a career out of it’” she talked fast, laughing nervously, wanting to explain her reasons without oversharing, but overall kinda babbling “I mean, the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so more romantic, and exciting, and cool and-” she gushed incoherently ending with a “You know?” and a smile.

The huntress in the back apparently  _ didn’t  _ know, because she looked completely unamused throughout the entire thing, but Ozpin held a light smile on his face.

“Do you know who I am?” the man finally asked.

“You’re Professor Ozpin. You’re the headmaster at Beacon,” she replied with certainty. Even if she didn’t know who he was, she could’ve deduced who he was from the conversation the man had with John.

The headmaster’s small smile grew into a grin as he said: “Hello”.

“Nice to meet you” she replied with a respectful nod.

“You want to come to my school” he asked in complete seriousness, leaning a bit forward to capture her complete attention.

“More than anything” she replied wistfully, looking straight into his moss colored eyes. They were calculating; detached. But they were also generous and trustworthy.

Ozpin looked to his partner almost sheepishly. The woman simply huffed and rolled her eyes, holding her arms crossed the whole time.

“Well okay” the man told Ruby, holding a hand for her to shake “You’re in”.

Ruby’s eyes widened, same as her smile “Really?”

When Ozpin nodded, she gave him an enthusiastic handshake with both hands “Oh, thank you thank you thank you  _ THANK YOU _ !” she gushed “I promise you won’t regret giving me this opportunity”.

“Oh, I know I won’t. You’re good, but you still have a lot of potential, Miss Rose. I know you’ll blossom into a great Huntress in the future” he reassured as he stood up from his seat “And I’m also sure you’ll fit well with your peers at Beacon. They might be a bit older than you, but I’m sure you’ll get along fine with them.”

“As a matter of fact, Mr. Egbert here is joining Beacon this year as well” Ozpin said pointing out John “Now you can even say you already know someone who attends” the professor said with a twinkle in his eyes “Now you’re both free to go. Wouldn’t want to worry your parents too much, now” he said with a wave of dismissal.

Both teens nodded in unison before standing up and heading towards the exit. As they got out of the police station they stopped at the front, standing side by side a bit awkwardly.

“So... congratulations on getting into Beacon. Ruby, wasn’t it?” John broke the silence asking her name with a smile. Upon receiving a nod of confirmation, he continued  “You were totally awesome back there at dust shop. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone fight like you do. It rad as hell!” he gushed a bit and held a hand out to her “It’s a pleasure to have someone as badass as you as a classmate.”

“Ah, it was nothing much...” Ruby replied bashfully “You did some cool moves as well! That thing you did with your hammer, using gravity dust to reflect the fireball at the Bullhead was smart. And it almost hit too! John, right?” she asked back, shaking his hand.

“Yep! Oh, and that was just something I got used to doing. Dad likes to use projectiles against me during our training sessions. Except that instead of fireballs he used… cake,” he admitted hesitantly.

“Cake?” Ruby questioned with an inquisitive and confused tilt of her head. If she wasn’t mistaken she  _ did _ remember professor Ozpin saying something about John’s dad killing Grimm with a cake to the face. But that was probably a joke, right?... _ Right? _

“Yeah… dad isn’t the most orthodox fighter around” scratching the back of his head, he tried to explain “It’s… it’s honestly actually kind of scary how he can make a pastry into such a weapon of destruction, but he can” John admitted with sudden seriousness “When he uses them they can be as dangerous as those fireballs. It makes no sense!” his tone was exasperated.

“Wow that sounds… kind of intense actually” Ruby admitted reluctantly “Maybe it has something to do with his Semblance?” she tried to deduce “Do you know your father’s Semblance, John?”

“Hmm, now that I think about it, I’ve got no clue about it. As a matter of fact, I don’t even know what type of weapon he used to use in his hunter days”

Ruby was astonished “Wait, you’re telling me that he trains you without a weapon?”

“Yeah, pretty much. He gives me a lot of tips and advice regarding my own weapon, but he never uses his own. He just beats me up with his fists when we spar, and still wins most of the time”

“Woah, he must be super strong then!” Sure, Yang also beat people up with her fists, and she was quite strong, but Ember Celica was one big reason why her punches were packed like that. Without her weapon, Yang was basically at half strength, which was still stronger than a lot of people though.

“Heh, you’re telling me. The old man really comes through with his punches. Heck, sometimes I get bruises even with my Aura’s healing. If there’s two things he can do well then it’s baking and punching” he described wincing at the memories “and he’s a hell of a baker”

Ruby laughed “Poor you. My uncle Qrow might be a strict teacher, but at least he doesn’t pummel me during our spars. He normally just focuses on countering my moves” she huffed at her own memories “Not like that’s fun on it’s own, but still.”

“Yeah, I get what you mean” John chuckled at her comment “But hey, I don’t want to make it seem like he throws me around for fun. Dad’s a pretty kind dude. He makes sure to make up to me whenever he’s unintentionally too harsh, like buying me a big pack of Fruit Gushers.”

“Hey, that’s kind of like uncle Qrow. Whenever he gets me sulking, he apologises by baking me a batch of cookies, which is just fine with me” she sympathised “don’t tell him, though, but sometimes I just pretend to be upset to get the cookies”

“Ooh, watch out, we’ve got a conniving cookie hoarder here” John teased.

“Yup, I hoard them all right here in my belly” she patted it for emphasis, making both teens giggle. They were getting along quite well.

“You know, you’re surprisingly easy to talk to, Ruby” John decided to tell her after a small pause.

“Yeah...?” the girl inquired with raised eyebrow.

“Yeah! It’s just that I’ve seen you a lot in that Dust shop. You’re normally reading the new issue of the Weapon’s Magazine. I tried to talk to you one time, but since you weren’t responding, I thought you were the stuck up or the loner type. But you were actually just wearing headphones, so there’s that,” he explained a bit embarrassed.

“Oh! Really? I’m so sorry, John” she quickly apologized “It’s just that, I really like weapons, so whenever I’m looking at that magazine I’m so focused that I lose touch with the world around me.”

“Yeah, I noticed that. I can’t believe you actually asked that grunt if you were being mugged. That was an instant classic in my book,” John laughed out loud.

Ruby could feel her cheeks redden at that “Yeah, not my proudest moment. But I still kicked his ass, though!” she piped up, trying to save face.

“I’m not gonna deny that. I’m hella lucky to have had front row seats to that show. Ten outta ten, would watch you kick bandit ass again” John clapped with a faux serious face.

“Oh stop it, you” Ruby replied with fake bashfulness “I know I’m awesome”

Another pause followed until John looked like he was struck in the face “Oh no!”

“What happened?” Ruby asked, a bit worried.

“I’m late for dinner! Dad must be worried sick” he said, pulling out his scroll “And my battery’s dead. That’s why he didn’t call Oh man, this is terrible” he started pacing around “I got to go.”

“Yeah, my sister’s probably worried too. I’ll see you around, then?” she asked the now retreating form of the raven haired boy.

“Yeah, I’ll see you at Beacon. I’ll look for you, so don’t worry. Bye, Ruby!” he waved as he started running, a big gust of wind following suit.

A couple of moments past and he was already out of sight.

_ He’s pretty fast _ , she observed as John rounded a corner. He could probably keep up with her when she’s not using her semblance, but that’s still a pretty good speed. Her new friend was not too shabby, it appeared.

Ruby was feeling kind of relieved. With the happiness of being accepted into Beacon easing, she was hit with the realization that all her friends from Signal were going to be left behind.

She was entering Beacon knowing no one except for Yang…

And now John. That put her mind at ease a bit. Knowing two people was way better than knowing just one person. Now she wouldn’t have to attach to Yang like a lifeline.

Because she already knew John as well. She might have an easier time with weapons rather than people, but John was easygoing and fun. Not really intimidating to talk with.

She could probably count on him to be her friend, and that was a huge relief.

And just like that, Beacon didn’t seem that scary anymore. Just really, really exciting!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to be nice and post the second chapter one day early. Not a lot happens here, just a set up for the actual Beacon Stuff.  
> Please don't forget to comment on this fic so I can know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong.  
> Next chapter on Sunday.


	3. How to Make Friends 101

His father used to say that the first impression you give is the one that lasts the most with people. Normally Jaune would hang into his dad’s words like gospel, but in this case he really hoped the man was wrong for a change…

 

Because vomiting on a girl’s shoes and then running away to then vomit again in a garbage can outside was just a downright pathetic first impression one could give to any random onlooker. Jaune had never been good with flying, but he really hoped he could keep his stomach in check during his trip to Beacon.

 

I mean, what type of huntsman-in-training gets motion sickness from riding an airship, the type of vehicle that arguably most hunters use to be deployed on missions?

 

Well, one with fake credentials, that’s who. And he couldn’t even make it less obvious…

 

But hey, he was selling himself short. He might be a faker with no skills, but at least he had the determination and the will to necessary to become a hero! Or at least that’s what he tells himself to justify making business with a wanted criminal of the caliber of Spades Slick.

 

I mean, those faked transcripts that got him here had to come from somewhere, and the quality of the forgery had to be good enough to fool the staff of Beacon. So cue hitting up the Midnight Crew for the job.

 

Contacting them had been surprisingly easy. Clubs Deuce, one of the members, owns a hat shop in downtown Vale that surprisingly isn’t a front for any type of shady business from the Crew. Clubs Deuce simply really likes hats and works at the shop as his day job.

 

The short man is also an incredibly nice and helpful fella. When Jaune entered the shop he felt instantly welcomed by the guy. When he tried to discreetly ask about a forgery job, Deuce simply smiled at him, winked and said: “Consider it done.”

 

Jaune gave the guy all the information he would need of him to make a convincing job and left.

 

He came back to the place a week later, as instructed, to pick up his documents. Jaune got a pat on the back and another friendly wink and a “You’re welcome” from Deuce after he gave him the payment. Jaune couldn’t for the life of him figure out how the jolly and kind gangster have ever gotten into that line of work, and he didn’t feel comfortable asking the man either.

 

Now despite the strange interactions with the friendly outlaw, the documents looked legit as they could be. According to them he tutored privately instead of being from a combat school. The guy that supposedly taught him had actual teaching credentials but owed some favors to the Midnight Crew, so he would vouch for Jaune if he ever got contacted by the academy.

 

So all in all the foundations for this heroic scam were good enough for him to have been accepted. Now all he had to do was keep the image that he belonged here, and he’ll only ever leave when he graduated.

 

And he  _ would _ graduate. Becoming a huntsman was a dream he’d either achieve or die trying!

 

...Though he  _ really _ hoped that he wouldn’t die that soon. His ideal death would be in his late seventies after having a great career as a huntsman, having married his Beacon sweetheart, and being surrounded by his friends, family, children and grandchildren as he went peacefully in his sleep.

 

But hey, dying heroically trying to defend those weaker than him was the second best thing, and he’d do it just fine. He just really hoped he didn’t die pathetically, like during the initiation or something.

 

That would just be really, really sad. Sadder still was the very real possibility of that happening.

 

After finishing puking out his breakfast, Jaune straightened up and stepped away from the offended trash can. He wiped his mouth with his forearm and grimaced at the feeling of the acidic aftertaste in his mouth.

 

Looking down at the family sword strapped to his hip, he sighed. Oh how he wished had actual training with the thing.

 

But his lack of training was no one’s fault but his own, too. When he was younger he had demonstrated no interest in becoming a hunter, being too engrossed in comic books and videogames to think about his future, so his dad passed him up for training and started focusing on one of his younger sisters, Jeanne.

 

It wasn’t until after he was too old to enter Signal that he finally realized that the only way he could be a hero like in the video games and comic books was to become a huntsman, but by that time he had blown his only two opportunities.

 

He didn’t want to selfishly interrupt his sister’s training just so he could get some pointers either. It would be too little, too late. So he basically bought his credentials from criminals, stole the Arc family’s heirloom from its place on the trophy room, and ran away from home to join a combat school he wasn’t ready for.

 

What a hero he was measuring up to be, huh?

 

“Hey, um, are you okay?”

 

Jaune practically jumped as a voice spoke up. He was too engrossed in his negative self contemplation to notice that somebody was standing right in front of him.

 

The girl looked at him with a mix of concern and curiosity on her face. She had a kind and pretty face, framed by big circular glasses that called attention to her jade-colored eyes. Her mouth was formed into a small, bucktoothed, reassuring smile. Her hair was dark, long and fluffy and atop her hair sat…

 

Wait, were those a pair of white dog ears?

 

“Hello?” she tried again, waving a hand in front of Jaune’s eyes, causing Jaune to snap out of his analysis of the extra appendages on the girl’s head.

 

“Ah, sorry, my bad” Jaune quickly apologized “I didn’t mean to stare”

 

“Heh, it’s okay” the girl quickly dismissed his worried with a snort and a wave “I’m used to it. People always wonder why they’re not the same color as my hair” she told as she caressed her own furry ears “The answer is quite simple,” her smile widened “I just  _ don’t know. _ ”

 

“O-oh, you don’t?” Jaune asked, appreciating her deflection of the fact it wasn’t exactly the  _ color _ of her ears that made him stare. But their color  _ was _ a pretty uncommon detail, now that he thought about it.

 

“Nope” she replied enthusiastically “But to get back on track, are you okay? You seemed pretty out of it,” the faunus pointed out.

 

“Ah, it’s nothing” Jaune waved his hands in front of himself in a hopefully reassuring motion “I… I get motion sickness real easily whenever I fly. I was just trying to recollect myself” he half-lied. The motion sickness  _ was _ the thing that prompted this bout of self doubt after all.

 

“That sounds horrible!” the girl commented empathetically “But if that’s the case, then why don’t you take any medicine to ease the stomach?” she asked with genuine curiosity.

 

“Wait, there’s medicine for that?” Jaune widened his eyes in surprise, as the faunus girl giggled.

 

“Of course there is, silly. You didn’t know?” she inquired, getting a head shake as a response from Jaune “Well, how about I make you an offer then. Next time I head to Vale, I’ll bring you some anti-nausea pills for the future, how about that?”

 

“Would you do that for me?” Jaune asked, his voice filled with gratitude. The fact that she was saving him another excruciating airship trip was amazing “I promise I’ll pay you back fully.”

 

“Nah, there’s no need for that. Consider it a favor for a friend” she smiled at him sweetly “I’m Jade, by the way. Jade Harley” she extended a hand towards him.

 

“Friend huh? Well, my mom always said that strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet” he recited with a small nostalgic smile before puffing out his chest “Well, the name is Jaune Arc. It’s short, sweet, rolls off the tongue; ladies love it!” he replied, clasping her hand and shaking it.

 

This prompted Jade to raise an eyebrow in questioning “Do they really?”

 

“They do!” he exclaimed, before pausing for a bit “I mean, I hope they do. Never really got an opinion about it”

 

“Well, it  _ is _ a nice name. It’s very similar to my best friend’s name” Jade told him, getting by his side and then slapping him on the back, hard “But that line was really,  _ really _ bad. That won’t endear you to the ladies at all!”

 

Jaune stumbled forward from the slap to the back. He had a feeling that if he didn’t have his backplate on, he’d probably have a bruise where her palm impacted. Standing back straight on his feet, he noticed that Jade was now in front of him, looking over her shoulder at his face.

 

Getting the cue, he fell into step with her and they started walking together.

 

“Is it really that bad?” He couldn’t help but ask, a bit deflated.

 

“Yup! It sounds  _ pretty _ forced. Very lame too. It’s like you took advice from an old man that hasn’t been in the dating scene for at least twenty-some years” she told him bluntly, smile never leaving her face.

 

That made Jaune chuckle. That was a pretty correct assessment of where he got his flirting skills from. Mister Noah “All-you-need-is-confidence” Arc hasn’t needed to actually put effort in his flirting for  _ at least  _ twenty seven years now. He could literally go up to Jaune’s mom and say “You got a cute butt” and she’d swoon. They were lovey-dovey like that.

 

“You got a point” Jaune conceded “But now I have no guns in my arsenal, so to speak. What can I do about that?”

 

“And who says you need any guns in your metaphorical arsenal, Jaune? Can’t you just be yourself and win them over that way?” she questioned innocently.

 

That almost made him wanna laugh. Being himself meant being, quite honestly, pathetic. I mean, if he had to fake confidence in such a way that was obviously forced, it meant he didn’t really have any, right?

 

Couldn’t she see that?

 

Expectant eyes told him that no, she couldn’t see that. Well, she had a point, in a way. If he acted too cocky now, it would just blow up in his face when he failed to deliver in the future. So yeah, he might as well just be himself just so that he doesn’t create any expectations that he’ll fail to fulfil in the future.

 

With a sigh he simply replied “Yeah, I guess that’s just the best way to go about it, isn’t it?”

 

Before he could hear Jade say anything back, an explosion sounded out, startling the both of them.

 

“What the heck/fuck was that?” Jaune and Jade shouted out respectively.

* * *

 

Lying on the cold hard ground in dismay, Ruby imagined that her day could’ve been going  _ way _ better.

 

When first embarking into the airship she looked for John, her first friend from Beacon, to introduce him to her sister, Yang, but for some reason she just couldn’t find him.

 

She then thought that maybe he had already embarked and started looking for him inside the vehicle, but had no luck. Not soon after that the ship took off and there was no John to be found, giving her no chance to look for him on the other ships in the airport.

 

But hey, no problem, right? She could find him after she arrived at Beacon, right? Well, she wished she had before this all happened.

 

After watching a report talking about the newly formed duo of Roman Torchwick and the leader of the Midnight Crew, Spades Slick, and their attempted robbery at the Dust shop, she finally learned the name of the huntress that saved both herself and John from them.

 

Miss Glynda Goodwitch gave them a relatively warm welcome via hologram, talking about her expectations of them becoming great hunters that could uphold such a prosperous time of peace that the four kingdoms were experiencing right now.

 

That speech added to the beautiful view of all Vale, including a peek at her and Yang’s home island of Patch, really lifted her spirits at the time.

 

Until, of course, a guy vomited on the airship and made Yang’s shoes suffer from the splash zone.

 

Since he didn’t do it on purpose, Yang didn’t pummel him to death. And since it was easy enough to clean, she didn’t even really get in a bad mood, so all was relatively good. Little did Ruby know that Vomit Boy was just the first wave of future shenanigans to come.

Like when Yang ditched her as soon as possible, just to force her to make new friends. Yeah, like that would work for a girl that likes weapons better than people. At least introduce her to someone, geez!

 

That was the second time that day she wished that she’d find John already. She really should’ve gotten his scroll number when she had the chance.

 

Still, being ditched wasn’t half as bad as being chewed out by a preppy and stuck-up Schnee heiress when she tripped over her luggage. It was an accident! But the pale white haired girl with the cold blue eyes and a side ponytail was having none of her apology. Speaking of white, that was basically her whole outfit. White battle dress,  _ really _ light blue bolero jacket with a small red detail at the collar and white boots to finish the ensemble. How did she keep everything clean?

 

She just started having a tirade about how the luggage that Ruby tripped over was carrying Dust, and how dangerous and volatile it was, and how Ruby should be careful. She did all that, of course, while shaking a vial of fire Dust around with little to no care, the gods-damned hypocrite!

 

Naturally, a lot of Dust started floating around the air, and some of them got into Ruby’s nose. So, unsurprisingly, she sneezed, which resulted in a fiery explosion what would’ve probably killed someone with no Aura. Luckily it just seemed to irritate the heiress and cover her in ashes as the vial she was holding flew over their heads and landed at somebody’s feet.

 

That person picked up the vial and strode towards them as the heiress chewed Ruby out some more. It was actually this person who clarified who Weiss Schnee was to Ruby, while at the same time criticising the Schnee Dust Company for their shitty labour practices.

 

She looked to be an interesting girl. Intelligent amber eyes with purple eyeshadow similar to her own, pale skin, black hair and a black bow to top it off. Her outfit consisted of a black buttoned vest with coattails on top of a sleeveless white undershirt. Her arms were decorated with ribbons and a detached sleeve on the left one, while her legs were covered by black and purple stockings and a white pair of shorts, with black boots on her feet.

 

Ruby also noticed the sword on her back, and even though she didn’t get a good look, she could at least tell it split into two different parts. And it was probably also a gun. Most weapons were nowadays.

 

In any case, Weiss decided to storm off not wanting to deal with ‘these dolts’, leaving Ruby and the other girl alone. So when Ruby turned to thank the girl with the bow for the assist, she was already walking away as well.

 

And all of that led to now, with Ruby lying on the ground dejectedly with no friends and not knowing what to do.

 

But before she could fall in a spiral of self pity and general despair, she noticed two shadows blocking the sun from her face.

 

“Hey” She opened her eyes to see a blond guy with blue eyes smiling at her, and offering a helping hand. Right beside him, a spectacled raven haired girl with green eyes stood with a kind smile on her face as well. Curiously, she had what seemed like white dog ears sitting atop her head.

 

The first thing she noticed about the boy’s outfit was how he was the first hunter-in-training she’s ever met that actually wore any type of visible armor. It existed in the form of a stark white breast and backplate, white pauldrons, silver couters, orange vambraces and white wrist guards, and leather fingerless gloves. Under the armor he seemed to wear a black hoodie for padding, which seemed very practical. Curiously, he left no protection in his legs, wearing only simple jeans and black boots there.

 

The girl’s outfit was a bit more complex by comparison. She wore a solid black dress with a white swirly symbol that looked like a galaxy at the center of her chest, and the dress’ bell sleeves were cut in a way that exposed her tanned shoulders. Her black and white stockings led all the way from her crystal red shoes to where it met with her black skirt near the mid-thigh. Another curious accessory to her ensemble was what seemed to be a two pronged hood hanging out from the back of her dress.

 

“I’m Jaune” the guy introduced himself as she daintily grabbed ahold of his hand.

 

“Ruby” she told him right back, a bit shyly as he pulled her from the ground.

 

“Hi, Ruby! I’m Jade” the white-eared faunus introduced herself with a bubbly wave and then stepped up and placed both hands on Ruby’s shoulders and began to inspect her.

 

“Umm…” Ruby mumbled in discomfort at being scrutinised so closely.

 

“You aren’t hurt, are you?” Jade asked during her inspection.

 

“Why would I be hurt?” Ruby asked in total confusion.

 

“Well, it’s just that we heard a huge explosion coming from this direction, you see. And then the next thing we see is you on the ground, looking completely defeated” Jaune explained, looking over Jade’s shoulder “You weren’t attacked, were you?”

 

At that, Ruby could only laugh awkwardly and take a step back from the well intentioned faunus “It’s okay, guys, I’m alright. The explosion was kind of my fault…” she paused pressing her fingers together in shame.

 

“Wait, really?” Jaune asked in monotone disbelief, Jade agreeing with him with a raised eyebrow of her own.

 

“Well, it’s kind of a long story…” Ruby started, looking down rubbing the back of her head.

 

“Well, in that case, you can tell us while we walk. We need to find the auditorium after all” Jade suggested, helpfully.

 

At that Ruby nodded with a small smile “That sounds good to me”

 

And so the three of them started walking together as Ruby recounted the tale of meeting the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and the mysterious stranger that helped her out.

 

“Wow, this Weiss girl sounds really uptight” Jade commented with a sympathetic wince at all the harsh words that the Schnee girl threw at the girl.

 

“So wait, you caused all that ruckus with a sneeze?” Jaune teased the red-hooded young lass “Oh man, that’s rich.”

 

“Hmph, I don’t get what you’re laughing at. Aren’t you that Vomit Boy who threw up on the ship?” Ruby teased him right back with an amused smirk.

 

“Hey! Motion sickness is no laughing matter,” the blond young man frowned at her comment “It’s much more common and serious problem than most people give it credit for. It’s not like I can control it when my stomach simply decided to go and start doing flips on its own. And it really leaves me out of commission” he explained dejectedly.

 

“Look, I’m sorry, but Vomit Boy was the first thing to mind. Didn’t mean to dig up such a crippling handicap” the red haired lass apologised, although the small snort at the end made it seem like she wasn’t taking his condition  _ that _ seriously.

 

“Oh yeah? If that’s how it’s going to be, how about I call you Crater Face?” he shot back as a rebuttal.

 

“Hey, that explosion was an accident,” Ruby tried to defend herself

 

“And you think I blow chunks on purpose?” Jaune crossed his arms over his chest, shooting down her defence with extreme prejudice.

 

In response Ruby lowered her head, admitting the verbal defeat while mumbling “I’m still calling you Vomit Boy”

 

Jade, meanwhile, simply giggled at the innocent bickering between the two of them. Ruby felt really glad that these two found her.

 

The conversation started dying out after that. Not feeling comfortable, Ruby decided to show her pride and glory.

 

“So, I got this thing” she said, pulling out Crescent Rose from her hip and unfolding it.

 

“Woah” Jaune jumped back, very startled “Is that a scythe?”

 

“It also seems to be a customizable, high impact sniper rifle” Jade added, looking at the thing with admiration.

 

“Um, what?” the only male in the group asked in confusion.

 

“It’s also a gun” Ruby clarified, cocking Crescent Rose’s chamber for emphasis, earning a small “oh” from the blond.

 

“But hey, Jade, how did you know that about Crescent Rose?” the red-headed girl couldn’t help but ask.

 

“Ah, well, if there’s one thing that I really know about besides gardening, it’s guns. My grandpa is quite the gun nut and taught me everything I know about them. I can normally tell a lot about a gun on the first look I have at it” she explained, pulling out her own weapon that unfolded into a green and white rifle with a black decal that looked like the silhouette of a dog’s head.

 

“This is Becquerel. He can transform into a sniper rifle, an assault rifle, or a shotgun” she explained excitedly, showing Ruby her gun’s multiple forms “I can say, with no shadow of a doubt, that he’s the best friend a girl could ever need” Jade joked and giggled alongside the lass with the red hood.

 

After they were done joking around, they both turned their attention to the only guy in the group, who suddenly looked like he didn’t want to be here.

 

“So what do you got?” both huntresses-in-training asked in unison.

 

“Oh-uh…” he paused awkwardly as he pulled his weapon from the hip and showed to the girls, his expression a bit ashamed “I got this sword”

 

“Oooooooh” Ruby sounded out, seemingly impressed at the meager showing.

This filled Jaune with some more manner of confidence, apparently, since he seemed a bit more enthusiastic when he brought up his sword’s sheath, which transformed “I’ve got a shield too!”

 

“Wow, they look extremely well made” Jade stepped up, eyeing the sword closer, and tapping on the shield “Very sturdy too,” she kept tapping until she accidently made it regress into its sheath form.

 

In response, Jaune seemed to fumble a bit with it as it jumped from shield form to sheath from, over and over until the young knight seem to stabilize it as a shield.

 

“So, what does it do?” Ruby asked in curiosity.

 

“Well, the sword is just a sword, but the shield can regress into a sheath so it’s easier to carry it around” he explained.

 

“But doesn’t it just weigh the same?” Ruby asked, a bit unimpressed.

 

“Don’t be like that, Ruby. It’s still better than just carrying it in your hands. I bet your Crescent Rose still weighs the same in its compact form” Jade pointed out “But you still must appreciate the extra mobility”

 

“Actually I use a bit of gravity Dust that activates when it’s compact so it doesn’t weigh that much” Ruby refuted with sheepish chuckle “But I get the point. What else does it do, Jaune” she turned back to the boy at that point.

 

“Well… Crocea Mors is pretty sturdy. Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s unbreakable. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war, but it still looks pristine. Doesn’t ever seem to lose its edge either.” As he explained, Jaune seemed to realize that his weapon was actually pretty amazing, and his voice filled with a certain amount of pride “No dents in the shield either, although I’m sure my dad gave it a new coat of paint recently”

 

“Woah, that’s actually pretty awesome. I like it. Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days, and yours might as well be legendary” Ruby gushed, the weapons geek inside of her unable to contain itself.

 

“Yep. I mean, I got a lot of pride on my Bec here, but nothing quite beats a weapon with a history” Jade nodded sagely.

 

Ruby nodded along, seeing Jaune’s face brighten quite a bit. Even someone as socially awkward as she was could tell that he was feeling like his weapon was being showed up by her Crescent Rose and Jade’s Becquerel, so all that lip service would only do good.

 

Crescent Rose would always be her baby and biggest pride, but even she had to admit that Crocea Mors’ history did seem to be quite legendary, so all that praise was 100% sincere from her part.

 

After all the talk about weapons was over, a more comfortable silence seemed to fall in place, and Ruby had no problem with it this time.

 

Until she seemed to notice that there wasn’t anyone else around their little group of three.

 

“Hey Jade, where are we going?” she asked the raven-haired faunus.

 

“Oh, I don’t know. I was just walking in the same direction as you two were. I don’t actually know where the auditorium is” she explained with a sheepish laugh.

 

“You think there might be a directory? Maybe a food court?” Jaune suggested “Any recognizable landmark so we might… find ourselves?”

 

“I don’t think now’s the appropriate time for a spiritual journey, Jaune” Jade deadpanned, causing the other two to laugh.

 

“I guess that’s a no...?” Jaune tried again.

 

Ruby snorted “That’s a no.”

 

But in the end it was okay. She was very happy to have made two more friends already, and they were bound to find their way eventually.

  
Still there was just one more thing that was bothering her. Where the heck was John!?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here's your Sunday chapter. This is getting a better reception than I expected in the short time it's been up, although I haven't had any reviews yet.   
> Any comment you might have about characterization, plot direction or whatever else, please don't hesitate to make it.
> 
> Next chapter on Wednesday and then I'm done with the chapters that are already written.
> 
> See ya then!


	4. Evil Corporations and the Other Rose

Breaking promises is bad and not really something John liked to do if he could help it. Still, it was somewhat unavoidable that he could not catch the first airship to Beacon with Ruby, since his Dad decided to make him a departure cake before he left home on his first official step in becoming a man and a huntsman.

Normally John would not strife with his dad about cake either. The baked goods don’t bother him anymore like they did when he was thirteen.

_ However _ since today was apparently a special occasion, the Dadbert decided to make as much cake possible./

As much  _ Betty Crocker _ cake possible.

As much Betty Crocker cake possible, and then _ prompt his son to eat it all. _

That gave John some flashbacks, oh boy how it did. What followed was an intense exercise in the art of refusing cake from Mr. Egbert. An art that involves literal dodging of the round pastry weapons.

The house was a mess by the end of this unexpected morning ritual, and Mr. Egbert expressed deep pride in the fact that John managed to end the fight without a single piece of cake ever landing inside his mouth.

Then he made John clean up the mess.

Which was fine since Dad Egbert isn’t an unfair man and helped his son along the way. What wasn’t fine, however was the time it took to clean up all the sugary goods.

By the time John arrived at the airship station, the first ship had departed about two hours prior.

Still, he wasn’t unlucky enough that he had no airships left to choose from. The Vale-Beacon trips were common enough that there were various flights along the day, making that he only had to wait around fifteen minutes to embark on the next one.

The trip was pretty much eventless, with no other students around for him to make small talk with. Ultimately that was fine, he could still appreciate the view, which was something he wasn’t really used to doing whenever he flew by himself, ironically enough.

In about an hour after setting off, he was landing. The entrance courtyard seemed to be scant with activity, meaning that most people were probably exploring the Academy itself instead of waiting around for the entrance ceremony.

Which means it probably happened already and John fucking missed it.

John’s dad was really great, make no mistake, but sometimes he really blurred the lines between a responsible adult and an unrepentant joker. Maybe it was because he had gotten a direct recommendation from Ozpin so he knew John wouldn’t get in trouble, or maybe it was just that the Egbert patriarch knew that missing the entrance ceremony wasn’t that big of a deal, but John was pretty certain that his old man did it on purpose.

Well, at least with that out of the way, he could focus on what’s important! And that is finding Ruby and his online friends… which would’ve been easier if he had arrived on time...

With an epiphany, John finally got it. Those cake shenanigans and intentionally making the boy arrive late was his Dad’s departing Prankster’s Gambit for the rest of the year. The older Egbert got John good. He could practically feel his Gambit Meter hit its lowest point from that. A hit so grand that it would be nigh-impossible to recover it from simply pranking other students. At the end of the year he’s going for the big fish himself.

No. Mercy.

And at that moment, from their house, Mr. Egbert felt a swell of pride for his son for no reason at all. Maybe it’s because he’s on the path to become a great huntsman. Yeah, that has to be it.

Back with John, he decided to put off the planning for Project Atlas, which is what he decided to call his military degree prank. He still had the whole year to plan it, and he would probably need allies.

So for now he has decided to go exploring. Maybe with some luck he’d meet these future allies. Maybe with even more luck these allies will be the friends that he had been planning to find originally.

The thing that John didn’t take into consideration while wandering around was that he had no idea how to approach the people that he saw while wandering around. Especially since most of them seemed to be grouped up with other people already, making him think that they were probably older students.

He still managed to get a good look around the school despite having no intention to mingle with already formed groups of veteran students, so his efforts weren’t in vain. He managed to find out the location of the library, the training rooms, the locker rooms, the lunch room and the combat class arena.

He didn’t quite manage to get to see any other possible first years around, and it was already getting dark. Maybe they were congregated in some place he hadn’t managed to find yet? Or did Betty Crocker perhaps raid the place and captured them all to be slaves at her baking factories?

As much as the first option seemed more plausible for him, the second one kept nagging at his head. He had stopped nagging his father about the supposed evils of the “Batterwitch” around three years ago since it was obviously some childish delusions related to his then hatred off all baked goods.

But ever since the investigations of the unethical practices of the baking company were leaked to the CCT network, also commonly known as Internet, about a week ago, John’s previously childish suspicions about the CEO began to resurface. Like, shit, the degree of sketchy stuff that the company supposedly did rivaled even the Schnee Dust Company.

The fact that the whistle-blower that leaked all the information had died last night, apparently mauled to death by a single Beowolf that had managed to “sneak” into his property, made it all even more suspicious. I mean, not even Mr. Schnee dealt with assassination seeing that all the people that reported the company’s mistreatment of Faunus are still alive. Truly something to think about.

Something that John unfortunately thought about maybe a tad too much, as he snapped out of his reverie when he felt something impact harshly into his chest, almost making him stumble back, but he recovered his footing easily

The distinct sound of someone falling on their asses made him look down with the intent to help, and then all he could see was white, from the person’s hair to their outfit.

“Ugh, does no one in this damn school ever watch where they are going!?” the downed girl complained to no one in particular as she grabbed for what looked like a sleeping bag, which she dropped with the fall.

Now that John looked at her more closely, the girl’s outfit was obviously a camisole dress which paired with the sleeping bag left her current intentions clear.

“Oops, my bad. I wasn’t paying attention” John admitted sheepishly as he reached out a hand for the girl to pull herself up, but was coldly ignored as she brought herself up to her feet. He didn’t let that bother him, though “I was just wondering where the rest of the first years were. I haven’t seen any around”

The girl’s response was a haughty one, as she dusted herself off “Are you slow or something? Ms. Goodwitch was pretty clear at directing all the first years to the ballroom. Didn’t you pay attention to the ceremony?”

She sounded a bit too exasperated while dealing with him. Maybe she had a long day?

“Man, I sure would have, if I had been there at all! I’m sure Ozpin said a bunch of cool shit like “You guys think you’re young and invincible, but you’re really not”. Too bad I caught a late flight and wasn’t able to catch  _ that _ motivational masterpiece.” John joked around a bit, trying to lighten the mood.

She was first year like him, apparently, and he wanted to make an impression on his classmates.

The unladylike snort that he got spelled success for him, even if it sounded a tad sarcastic.

“Isn’t it a bit irresponsible to show up late to your first day at Beacon?” the girl’s voice took a scolding tone.

“Hey, if you want to blame someone, blame my dad. I wasn’t the one that started a cake war!” John defended himself faux-indignantly.

“Cake wa-? Never mind, I want to conserve my brain cells,” the girl shook her head in bemusement.

“Yeah, it’s pretty much as stupid as it sounds” he admitted with a chuckle “I’m John, by the way. John Egbert.”

“Weiss Schnee” the girl identified herself with obvious pride in her name.

Well would you look at that? Talk about the devil and it shows its tail.

“Wow really? What a coincidence, I was just thinking about your father’s company!”

_ That _ caused her to narrow her eyes “Oh really? Are you going to badmouth it like every other person has been doing today?”

“Um, not really?” John tried, conciliatory “I was just thinking how despite all the sketchy stuff the SDC has been accused of, at least it’s not as bad as Betty Crocker”

“You’re referring to the guy they found dead yesterday that leaked all that information?”

John was genuinely surprised at the quick connection “Actually, yeah. I’m surprised you’ve heard of it. The news haven’t been reporting a lot about it since it seems like he was killed by natural phenomena”

That caused Weiss to give a self-satisfied smile “Well, a heiress such as me has to keep her ear on the ground for suspicious activities surrounding the competition. And a whistle-blower dying a gruesome death definitely falls into that category”

John nodded along to that before stopping himself “Wait, what do you mean, “competition”? Betty Crocker is a baking company that makes shitty cake mix and fruit gushers (my guilty pleasure),” he whispered that last part. “Why would she be direct competition to a Dust mining company?” he asked in confusion.

“It’s pretty simple,  _ John _ ” she said his name like she wanted to call him something else “The baking thing is only a facet of the corporation. Betty Crocker has been mining Dust for as long as she has been baking cakes. It’s mainly what fuels the corporation. Didn’t you say you read the leaks?”

“I did! Well, I skimmed it” he admitted, earning a glare from the heiress “It was too big, jeez! I had better things to do, like prepare for Beacon”

“Yeah, right,” she snorted again and rolled her eyes “So if we’re done here, I intend to find a nice corner in the ballroom to set up for sleep”

“Are you in a hurry, Weiss? Because I wanna go to the ballroom with you, but I need to change into my own PJs. Can you please wait for me?” John asked the heiress with such niceness that if she refused she’d feel like a total jerk.

“Ugh,  _ fine! _ But if you’re not back in ten minutes, I’m going without you and you’re going to have to find your way around by yourself, understood?”

“Yes, ma’am, miss Schnee, ma’am!” John declared with a mock salute as he rushed to the locker rooms.

* * *

Weiss was somewhat impressed by the gust of wind that followed after the boy took off. He was so fast she couldn’t even see him anymore!

Damn, if that’s the case he might actually be back in less than ten minutes. She was hoping to be able to ditch him without going back on her word. Now it’s real possibility that she’ll be stuck with him for a bit more.

And wouldn’t you believe it, he was back in nine, another gust of wind following after him. Perhaps that had something to do with his semblance?

“Sorry for the wait” said the boy now clad in comfy blue pajama pants and a matching shirt with a wavy pattern on it. A long hood reminiscent of both a nightcap and a windsock also trailed after him, a bit of it hitting the ground.

“What’s up with this ridiculous get-up?” Weiss asked with barely masked disdain. Because seriously, that hood has no business existing.

“What, my PJs? They’re a normal shirt/pants combo, jeez!” John rebutted indignantly.

“Not that, you dolt! This!” she walked around him and grabbed the oversized hood, shaking it with a huff.

“Oh, that! I dunno, it came with the pajamas. I normally just wrap it around me when I sleep” he replied with a shrug.

“Ugh, nevermind. Let’s just get to the ballroom already so I can get my well deserved rest” Weiss grumbled in frustration.

“You sure make it sound worse than it is. It’s just a stupid hood”

“So you admit that it’s stupid!” Weiss gave a smirk to that”

“Yeah, it’s very fucking stupid,” John admitted before smiling widely, “but I still like it a lot.”

The heiress had no response to that. Instead she huffed and stayed quiet the rest of the way there and soon enough they arrived at their destinations.

To her surprise Weiss did not have to make any type of attempt to get rid of John.

“Thanks for showing the way, Weiss! I’ll go try and look for my friends now. Have a good night!” he told her before dashing into the sea of people trying to set up their little private corners. He had quite the light step going in, almost as if he was floating, and a gentle breeze seemed to follow him, messing up some of the other students’ sleeping arrangements.

An unusually devious smile on the boy’s face told her that that was probably on purpose.

What an intriguing person, this John Egbert. She’d keep an eye out for him. He might be just what she’s looking for in a teammate. Especially if the windy thing he does is part of his semblance.

But still, the way he nonchalantly ditched her irked Weiss for some reason. It was like she was expecting John to make excuses to hang around her just so she could have the satisfaction to tell him to go bother someone else.

…

Wow, ok, that was some mean reasoning by her part. But the heiress really did expect him to act like some type of upstart trying to associate himself with her as much as he could because of her family name.

That he didn’t do that was supposed to be a pleasant surprise, but for some reason she felt robbed of the satisfaction to tell someone to sod off.

“Um, excuse me…”

“Go away” she growled out on instinct at a blonde guy in blue footie pajamas that managed to be even tackier than John’s.

“Got it” the boy gulped and nodded as he backed away quickly.

Well would you look at that? She was feeling better already.

After this quick exchange she found the place she had left her things when she went to change and noticed that she now had a neighbor.

The girl was cross legged, wearing an orange robe of sorts with a yellow sun proudly on display on her chest. The robe was a hooded one, similar to John’s, but at a much more sensible length. She was wearing her hood up, but Weiss could see the girl’s striking violet eyes as they ran line through line of a heavy black tome, illuminated by candles on a candelabrum.

“Hello there,” she looked up with a mysterious smile as Weiss approached, “I hope you don’t mind me settling down so close to your stuff. This place is awfully packed and there was some space left around your little corner. My apologies if I disturb you,” the girl greeted with an awful lot of politeness.

“Ah, it’s alright” Weiss dismissed the girl’s worries with a wave of her hand. If it had been a more annoying figure Weiss would’ve probably set her foot down and demanded the person to leave, but this girl’s politeness successfully disarmed her.

“Stupendous,” the girl’s smile widened a bit, “I was afraid that my temporary neighbor would be somewhat unreasonable, but good to know that there are still sane people who decide to partake in the hunter business,” the girl declared with a chuckle, as if sharing an inside joke with herself before pulling down her hood to reveal light sandy blonde hair that reached her neck, styled with an orange hairband.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” the Schnee heiress agreed as she sat down on her more ostentatious sleeping bag, “a lot of the people that I met here were… eccentric, but some were flat out annoying,” she huffed, thinking about the careless idiot that almost blew her up and the girl with the bow that had insulted her family.

“Ah, I know well about annoying,” the blonde girl seemed to sympathize, but there was some fondness in her voice, “I have to deal with an idiot, a dork, and a nerdy puppy basically everyday. Sometimes it gets on my nerves, but I live with it. They’re still my best friends”

“Oh, so you had to leave some friends behind, huh? That’s a shame” Weiss said lamely, unable to really sympathize. Her only friends was her sister Winter, and she was in Atlas military for a while now. Klein as well, perhaps, but he was her butler so it didn’t quite count.

To her surprise the sandy blonde girl laughed. “Oh no, I didn’t leave anyone behind. There are no friends waiting to hear news from me back home. I was as friendless as they come,” she admitted.

_ That _ struck a chord with Weiss. Maybe this girl and her had a lot more in common than she thought. But still, there was something that left her a bit confused “Wait, if you had no friends then who were those three people you mentioned before?”

“Ah yes, I can see how my words might seem contradictory. It’s true that I have no friends back home, but I still managed to find friends elsewhere. The idiot is Atlesian. He likes to pester me daily with his special brand of “irony” and I psychoanalyze him in return until he squirms,” her smile turned evil at that.

“The dork is Valean and a good friend. Really just a good person to talk to. A bit silly at times but he’s honest and earnest, and easy to talk to. Overall he puts you at ease,” she continued, her expression softening.

“And the nerdy puppy is from Vacuo and really self descriptive. She’s smart, she’s loyal and she’s basically a ray of sunshine;” she huffed at that “really puts a damper on the somber moods I try to create sometimes.”

“Where did you meet them?” Weiss asked, tilting her head slightly. It’s a rare thing to know people from all four kingdoms like this. Inter-continental travel wasn’t very easy with all the Grimm around and such.

“Personally? I haven’t yet. We’re internet friends,” she revealed, to Weiss surprise. “I’m probably about to, though. We’re all hunters-in-training, and we’ve also agreed for all of us to attend Beacon. It’s just a matter of time, to tell the truth. I’m quite excited to meet them” she revealed.

Ah, so she’s about to meet her long-time friends for the first time. That sounds… really nice to tell the truth. And from the way the girl described her friends, she seemed pretty lucky to have them.

“Ah, where are my manners,” the blonde interrupted the heiress’ thoughts, “I’m Rose. Rose Lalonde,” she introduced herself, extending a hand forward.

“Weiss. Weiss Schnee” she reciprocated, giving the extended hand a shake.

“Oh my. I’m honored to have the esteemed heiress to the Schnee Dust Company as my neighbor” the girl, Rose, declared with a small bow, causing Weiss to narrow her eyes.

“I’m just kidding, obviously” the blonde continued dropping the fake reverence in her voice “It still is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Weiss, but I won’t make a fuss about your status. I can see already that you don’t like it.”

At that, Weiss huffed imperiously before dropping her airs and giving a genuine smile back “Thank you, Rose. Say, what do you know about the team assignments? Maybe we could end up in the same team. I’d love to team up with someone that doesn’t care about my status”

“Ah, tha-”

Their conversation was interrupted by a commotion before Weiss could clearly hear her response.

“I guess this is what happens when a lot of young people bunk together” Rose joked to lighten the mood, but Weiss was already getting up.

“Ugh, they are so inconsiderate!” she complained while getting up “I’ll go over there shut them up.”

With a sigh, Rose bookmarked her tome and got up as well “Let’s keep it diplomatic, okay?”

Weiss didn’t hear her, striding towards the troublemakers with purpose.

“What in the world is going on over here!? Don’t you realize some of us are trying to sleep?” she yelled at the troublemakers.

“”Oh no, not you again”” the duo cried out in unison, and that when she noticed that they were the moronic girl that blew up and her blonde, violet-eyed sister.

“Hi Weiss!” and of course, along with them was John with a wide smile on his face as he waved at her.

““Wait, you know her too?”” the moron and Weiss cried out at the same time.

“Hello John” a softer voice came from behind the heiress and she looked back to see Rose with a smile that could rival the boy in blue.

“Rose!” Weiss blinked once and felt a gust of wind she was quickly becoming familiar with as the raven haired boy basically teleported to the robed blonde.

“It’s good to see you too” Rose laughed in delight as John threw his arms around her in a tight hug, swaying side to side a bit.

The onlookers found themselves at a lost to what to do, as the hostile discussion was killed by the touching reunion.

The quiet raven-haired girl sitting on her own corner took the opportunity to blow out the lights

“Time for all of you to go to sleep” Miss Goodwitch’s voice sounded throughout the ballroom.

And then it was lights out for everybody.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is, my the last chapter I had already done! Normally this would mean at least a full week or two of waiting for the following chapter, but fear not, my good citizens! Chapter 5 is done and ready for delivery!
> 
> Now I must decide if it'll go up on Friday or on Saturday. I don't know which of those would generate more traffic. And can you blame me for trying to speculate? I really want this story to reach the most eyes possible so traffic times do perplex me a bit.
> 
> Bleh, I'll end up just posting Chapter 5 when it's the most convenient in the end.
> 
> See y'all again in the weekend!


	5. Shady Cool Guy

“Goooooooooood morning Ren!”

If anyone ever asked Lie Ren if he found any use in an alarm clock, he’d be unable to say anything other than no. For almost every day ever since his childhood, Ren would never find a use for the blaring device.

“It’s morning, it’s morning, it’s morning~!” the singsong voice of his childhood friend insisted on reminding him that yes, the sun was up in the sky.

“I know, Nora”

Lie Ren sighed. Unlike some, he was not a morning person, but he has gone through the motions so many times before that he found it relatively easy to get up from his bedroll.

“Then what are you waiting for, lazy bones, we got the whole day ahead of us!”

Ren got on his feet with a yawn and nodded along as Nora began to ramble about how she can’t believe how they have spent a full twenty four hours at Beacon.

To tell the truth he also felt a bit giddy on the inside. He could barely believe that they had finally reached this point in their journey, and that they were still together after ten years. He sneaked a look at Nora as she rambled and he could still barely believe that this shining bolt of lightning was the same meek girl he’d met back in Anima…

Ren shook his head. No time to dwell on the past, this was initiation day and their first step into Beacon proper. They needed to focus… or rather he needed to focus and Nora needed to keep up her electric attitude. In spite, or rather because of her scatterbrained attitude, Nora could be very creative and unpredictable in battle, and that’s when she’s at her best. Learning how to work with her was an uphill battle, but Ren became a master at it eventually. They were quite the formidable duo.

As they brushed their teeth and packed their bags, Nora ended up wondering in her ramblings about the odds they’d still be together, and honestly? Ren just couldn’t envision how his life would’ve been without Nora at his side to pick him up, neither could he imagine how Nora would’ve survived long enough without him there to keep her recklessness in check.

They needed each other.

Which is why despite how exhausted she made him feel every morning, when she started strategizing during breakfast on how they could be on the same team together, he simply nodded along. He wanted to be close to her as much as she did, even if he didn’t verbalize it, and he knew that she knew that.

“We should make up signal, like a distress signal or secret signal so we can find each other in the forest. What animal do you think we should imitate?”

“Caw caw caw!”

“Oooooh that’s a good crow imitation, Ren! If you do that I’ll be able to find you in no time!”

“That… wasn’t me, Nora” Ren replied perplexed, tracing the sound of the cawing back to its source.

Only instead of finding the black feathered animal, he instead found a white haired boy in a black suit and matching shades cupping his hands in front of his mouth and reproducing the sound of the bird with astonishing accuracy.

Nora also seemed to notice the origin on the sound, and Ren could hear her gasp excitedly and then rush to the boy.

“Are you a crow disguised as a human being? Wait, no! Are you a crow _faunus_? I don’t think I’ve ever met a bird faunus before! Do you have feathers hidden under that suit somewhere? Are they secret feathers?”

Instead of presenting the regular reaction to having Nora ask you some pretty personal questions, the white blond boy remained absolutely unfazed and responded without missing a single beat.

“No joke, that would explain a lot of shit in my life, like the mystery to why my brother’s hair looks like a dead bird. But damn, if I do have any secret feathers on my body they have to be like hella darned secret, cuz I’ve never in my life have been able to find one. Maybe it’s the feathers on the inside that matter, which is probably why I have a hella rad sounding crow call”

It’s not everyday that someone manages to get Nora Valkyrie bewildered, but it was quite a sight to see. And honestly, Ren couldn’t blame her. That type of response is not what what you usually expect from a stranger, even if you just bombarded them with questions.

But Nora is still Nora, so her bewilderment did not last long.

“I like the way you think! Ooooh maybe I got feathers on the inside too, lemme try,” she responded excitedly, trying to emulate the guy’s hand positions in front of her own face and attempting to caw.

It was… atrocious, and Ren couldn’t help but cringe at the screechy sound that came from Nora’s vocal chords.

The boy with the shades however remained almost impassive at the sound, the only clue that he was cringing as well was the tightening of his jaw and the slight furrowing of his brow.

“That was… amazing, in it’s own way” the boy said with a hint of awe in his voice.

Nora smiled at the compliment and turned Ren’s way to see his opinion.

Ren did his best to smile back and give her some honest feedback.

“It was very… identifiable,” he told truthfully “I would have no problem finding you in the forest with a call like that.”

“That’s perfect!” Nora shouted in excitement “This way we’ll end up in a team together for sure!”

The boy in the suit grinned “Good to see shameless eavesdropping and making animal sounds has solved all of the world’s problems as usually does.”

Ren smiled slightly at that “I don’t blame you for overhearing our conversation. Nora makes any conversation seem interesting… and easy to hear” he added which prompted a sheepish giggle from the Valkyrie.

“I’m kind of impressed of how someone can get so lively so early in the morning. What, does she got electricity running through her veins or something?”

Ren grinned at the guy’s guess “Heh, your guess isn’t too far from the truth” he says rubbing the back of his head before offering a hand in greeting “I’m Ren by the way. Lie Ren.”

“And I’m Nora!” his partner exclaims excitedly by his side.

“Dave Strider” the boy introduces himself shaking Ren’s hand before locking eyes with Nora.

Dave disengaged from Ren and continued this stare off for about ten seconds before trading a crisp nod with the Valkyrie before a high five that evolved into an improvised “secret handshake” on the spot.

Good to see they were going to get along fine.

“Say… I’ve heard teams here in Beacon have to be made up of four people,” Nora commented after their handshake was done “do you wanna team up with me and Renny, Dave?”

Dave in response shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged “We’ll see about that. I actually made a promise with some friends of mine about us ending up on a team together but I haven’t found them in the school grounds,” he sighs. “And before you suggest I call them so I can have a very ditzy and endearing ‘hey, duh, why didn’t I think of that before’ moment, I’ll have to disappoint you here because I absolutely do not have any of their scroll numbers because I am an idiot and forgot to ask them.”

Ren could see that he was trying to play it cool, but Ren could see by the way Dave pursed his lips that the boy was really kicking himself over this blunder.

“Did you all live so close nearby that you never bothered to get their scroll numbers or something?” Nora asked confused as to how someone is this day and age would not have the number of someone they consider a close friend.

The question got a chuckle out of Dave “It’s actually the opposite, believe it or not. I never bothered to get their numbers before because it’s not like I’d be able to manage a call to Vale, or Vacuo, or Mistral all the way from the devil’s frozen balls that is Atlas by using a puny little scroll.

“We’re all uh… well it’s kind of embarrassing to say it out loud like this, but really my best friends are all internet friends. We all talked to each other using CCT computers ever since we were like thirteen or something” Dave scratched his cheek as the only sign of the supposed embarrassment, his face remaining relatively stoic.

“So you’ve got a friend in each kingdom? That’s more than many people can claim for themselves” Ren interjected with a hint of good humor.

Dave snorted “Ironically I’ve got no friends back in Atlas. I’ve got my brother, but that doesn’t really count since he’s basically obligated to it, and can be annoying as shit when he wants to” he jokes with what Ren could barely notice as an eyeroll behind his shade. “The other kids my age were either top shelf assholes, snobby rich kids, or boring military kids, and a lot of the time they were two or all of those things at once.”

“Is that why you picked Beacon in favor of Atlas Academy?” Ren deduced.

“Well the place is mad gloomy, but it might’ve been tolerable if my friends were there with me. But alas, my friend John won the ‘which of us will be the lucky bastard that doesn’t have to move out from their home’ competition, so that’s why I’m in Beacon,” he explains before leaning closer and faux whispering “but I’ll let you in on a secret. I threw the competition. Atlas Academy fucking sucks.”

That elicited a giggle from Nora and a humorous smile from Ren.

“Like, I said it’d be alright with my friends there, but that’s just it. It’s _alright_. Comparatively, I would think working at a morgue with my friends would be actually fun,” he ranted “Atlas Academy is worse than a morgue in terms of soul sucking. The place is so gray and military and robotic that it’s no wonder my brother Dirk who studied there wears gray, is in the military and makes robots”

“I can see why you wouldn't want to go to school there” Ren commented in amusement

“We picked Beacon because it has free tuition” Nora chimed in wanting to contribute to the conversation and Ren just nodded along “Compared to fancy schmancy price tag on Haven we decided that crossing the ocean was a better idea” she grinned.

“Y’all from Mistral then?” Dave asked in response to her mention of Haven Academy.

Ren had an awkward chuckle at that question “Um, not quite. We’ve never really been citizens of any kingdom. We do come from the Anima continent, though. Made our tours around a few settlements.”

“Frontier live, huh? Well that’s one way to end up having to learn how to fight Grimm”

Ren could sense that Dave didn’t mean anything by that comment, but he could feel his muscles tensing as unwanted memories came barging in the normally calm boy’s mind.

The soft but firm hand on his shoulder snapped him out of it. How long was he glaring at the ground? He looked over his shoulder to see Nora giving him a soft look of understanding and Ren felt bad about being annoyed by her morning antics. She was the only one who shared those memories with him and understood.

Ren forced himself, quite literally, to calm down by using his Semblance.

And to his credit, Dave was graceful enough to not mention anything about Ren’s six second breakdown, as he changed the topic to something lighthearted, like music, as the group collectively decided to make their way to the lockers as the time of the initiation was approaching.

* * *

Jaune Arc stood in the platform shaking slightly in his boots hoping that no one would notice. Kind smiles from both Jade and Pyrrha dissuaded him from that false hope, but then again they were the only ones watching him. Ruby, who was right beside him, was just way too excited about the test to notice his worry, and really that’s for the best.

Jade had introduced him to Pyrrha earlier in the day when they were getting ready in the locker rooms. Jaune had been a bit lost looking for his locker, misremembering which one he had put his equipment into before going to sleep, but after he managed to retrieve Crocea Mors he spotted Jade talking to a tall redhead in bronze armor and the white haired girl that had yelled at him yesterday when he was gonna ask her where the bathroom was.

Jaune had approached the three beauties with enthusiasm, greeting Jade and asking her to introduce him to her new friends. He learned then that the red haired amazon’s name was Pyrrha and that the short tempered white haired girl’s name was Weiss.

Apparently Weiss had been in the middle of an attempt to recruit Pyrrha into her future team because Pyrrha is some kind of big shot in the world of Mistralan fighting tournaments, winning the regionals four times in a row. Of course, Jaune wasn’t much one for watching combat sports so he had no idea who she was until Weiss mentioned that Pyrrha was in the front of the Pumpkin Pete cereal boxes. As a big Pumpkin Pete fan, Jaune was a little bit embarrassed that he didn’t notice that right away.

After all introductions were out of the way, he instinctively tried following his father’s advice and flirted with Weiss in an attempt to seem confident. Of course he was shut down by her immediately and when he was about to be insistent, Jade shot him glare of reminder about what they had talked about when they first met. He humbled himself real quick afterwards.

Jade and Pyrrha hit it off pretty much immediately, their positive personalities bouncing off each other very well. Weiss seemed to take notice of that and tried to see if Jade wouldn’t also be interested into joining in a team with her and Pyrrha, but the faunus girl politely declined saying she already had a full four person team in mind. That was too bad because Jaune was about to try and jump in that fourth spot to secure himself a good team, since Jade would probably be able to persuade Weiss into letting him in.

He still tried asking if he could have a spot in that team, and Pyrrha seemed very amicable to the idea, saying it would be a pleasure to have him. Unfortunately, Weiss was not having it and stormed away, dragging Pyrrha along with her.

Pyrrha’s cry of “I'm sorry” and Jade’s hand on his shoulder presented some comfort, but Jaune was left feeling like finding a team for himself was going to be a difficult trial.

“For years, you have trained to become warriors,” Ozpin’s voice snapped Jaune back into the present “and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest.”

Jaune’s body was undecided between having his stomach drop or his ears burn in shame. What training did he have? What abilities were there to be evaluated?

_Keep calm, you've come this far already. It's too late to back down, you've committed the moment you asked for the service of the Midnight Crew._

“Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of ‘teams’”. Ms. Goodwitch started , completely unaware of Jaune's inner turmoil. “Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today”

“These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well” Ozpin added as well.

Welp, that was early. Perhaps they would decide the teams based on their performance in the Emerald Forest. If that was the case then Jaune was either completely screwed or very lucky: Screwed if they team him up with people as skilled as him, meaning the bottom of the barrel, or lucky if Ms. Goodwitch and Ozpin were planning on more balanced teams, which would pair him up with probably the best students in their whole year.

He really hoped for the latter…

“That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years”

And got neither.

_WHAT!?_

“Whaaaaaat!?” Ruby voiced her own surprise right by his side.

Surely Ozpin was pulling their legs. This method was insane! How can you just be expected to work together with the first person you see for the next four years?

Jaune waited for Ozpin to laugh and tell them he was joking, but the man's face remained a stone as he took a sip out of the mug of coffee in his hand.

“After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die.”

Jaune wanted to think that the nervous chuckle that exited his lips would be mistaken for a confident laugh, but frankly that lie is too outrageous to tell himself.

“You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?”

Of course he had questions, how could anyone _not_ have questions after that.

 _Are you trolling us?_ He wanted to ask, but instead he went with another question.

“Um… Ozpin, sir, how are we supposed to get to the Emerald Forest from this cliff?”

“You will be falling” was Ozpin’s curt reply.

“Oh, so like we're base jumping and stuff? Are you gonna give you parachutes?” Jaune asked, his confusion rising.

If the headmaster was amused by his question, he was doing his best not to show it, “No, you will be using your own landing strategy.”

How the hell could strategy help soften a landing, Jaune would never know, because as soon as he was about to question what a landing strategy was, the platform under his feet sprang up and launched him forward and into the air, his unasked question becoming an unintelligible scream of panic in his throat.

_What now, what now, what now?_

He was going to die from this fall, there was no doubt about it. How could any normal human survive from such height? If only Ozpin had been more straightforward with the whole “landing strategy” thing he could have stepped out of the platform on time and given up just then and there.

When Jaune reached the apex of his ascent, he was still looking for ways to not die upon impact.

_Maybe I could use my shield to absorb all the impact of the fall, like Captain Vale. Sure it's not made of vibranium but I literally have no other choice._

And just when Jaune had reached a desperate resolution, the sky around him disappeared in a green flash and he fell a very short distance, face first onto the soft ground, skidding into a stop due to the conserved momentum.

He pushed himself up spitting grass and mud out his mouth.

 _I'm safe on the ground!_ He thought, incredulous.

He patted himself all over to see if everything was okay and he was happy to see everything was in order, although his stark white breastplate was now dirtied.

He looked up at the blue sky and wondered _How the heck did I get down from there?_

He knew for a certainty that the green flash he saw had something to do with that, but just what _was_ the green flash?

 _Survive now, think about it later_ , a part of his mind urged him, and that part of his mind was right. Whatever it was that had just saved his life could wait. He needed to not die in this forest, and for that he needed to find a partner ASAP.

A person who wins a fighting tournament four times in a row had to be strong, right? He really hoped Pyrrha has landed close to where he had, because right now she was his best chance of not dying.

 _Really hope that I find her before the Grimm find me,_ he thought as he used the sun to find the north and took off in a run.

 _And I really hope this direction really is actually north_ Jaune thought to himself as he had never used the sun for directions before. He knew that it rose at east and went down at west so if he pointed an arm at it during the morning, that direction is east and the opposite is west. That would make forward north, right? Or was it forward south and backwards north?

 _Argh, I already committed, no turning back now,_ he thought as he trudged on forward, keeping an eye and ear out for Grimm.

Unfortunately for him that meant that he wasn’t looking forward and could not notice the white haired dude in a suit that had  basically materialized in his path until Jaune had already bowled him over.

They fell into the ground in a heap with a grunt from Jaune and what sounded like a Wilhelm Scream coming from the boy in the suit.

Jaune pushed himself from the forest floor and looked down to end up seeing his own reflection on pair of very cool sunglasses, meaning of course that he had just made eye contact with the very cool boy that was using them.

“You know, when I got a cryptic warning that I’d be having a very intimate ‘look into their eyes’ moment with a hot blond, I was expecting the likes of Yang Xiao Long or maybe even Lalonde” the boy said in an amused monotone and reached out to caress Jaune's cheek “I'm surprised, but not complaining”

Jaune paralyzed at the gentle touch at his cheek. Did he just call him hot?

“Come on Jauney boy, I know I'm dreamy and shit, but you've been staring at me for way too long. It's time to get off” the young man in shades gave him a push to the breastplate and made Jaune roll off to the side.

The boy then sat up and stood up while Jaune stayed dumbfounded on the ground, looking up at him.

“Well, it was great running into you, but I've got a place to be in like one minute and forty seconds ago, so I'll be seeing you're in the future”

“Wait!” Jaune cried out when the boy made to walk away, and the boy stopped “We just made eye contact, right? Doesn't that mean we're partners?”

The boy in shades actually had a chuckle at that “Sorry bro, I've already got a partner. But hey, I'll give you a tip. Keep going for about five minutes in that direction and you'll get yourself a hot amazon for a partner, guaranteed” he said, pointing a finger in the direction Jaune assumed was west.

“Also, please make no mention of this encounter to me next time you see me. I'll have no memory of it so don't say anything or else shit will be hella awkward. ”

“Okaaay…?” Jaune replied thoroughly confused “Why wouldn't you though?”

“Weird semblance shit” the boy said as if that explained everything, turned around and started walking again “Just pretend you never saw me. Our next meeting is our first,got it?”

“A-alright…” Jaune answered, still very weirded out by this encounter as the boy disappeared in the foliage.

 _Wait, how did he know my name?_ Jaune thought to himself as the confusion just kept mounting up.

 _Didn't he also imply that I'm hot?_ Another part of his mind reminded him as Jaune felt his face burn up from embarrassment. First time he's got a compliment like this and it's from a weird dude in the woods.

Well never mind that, the weird guy in shades also said he'd find a partner if he spent some five minutes heading west. He called them a “hot amazon”. Perhaps it was Pyrrha? He sure hoped so, it's much better to team up with someone he knew than with a complete stranger. Plus Pyrrha had been pretty nice and kind the whole time he's known her. The only other good options he knew would Jade or Ruby, but he wouldn't describe either girls as amazons. They certainly weren't tall enough to fit the bill.

His question got answered quickly afterwards as he stumbled upon a clearing where he found a confused looking Pyrrha Nikos looking at her javelin pinned to a tree and scratching her head.

“Can't reach your weapon?” Jaune asked in a humorous tone as he approached her.

Pyrrha jumped in reaction, startled by his voice “Jaune!” she exclaimed, turning to look at him “I was looking for you! I tried to stop your fall by pinning you to this tree but you simply disappeared in mid air!”

“Yeah… I'm not sure how that happened, things have been crazy these past few minutes and-” he paused “Did you just say you tried to pin me to that tree?”

Pyrrha had the decency to look sheepish at that “Well… you looked like you needed help braking your fall and this was the best I could come up with…”

“Pyrrha! You could've killed me in mid air!” Jaune shouted in exasperation. What was she thinking?

“But Jaune, I was aiming for the hood on your clothes! And trust me, I never miss my shot” she replied with confidence.

“Still Pyrrha, that's way too risky a move! What if I moved in mid air and put my head where my hood was?!”

Pyrrha looked deflated at that “I'm sorry…”

Right then, Jaune felt bad about yelling at her. She was just trying to save his life.

He sighed “It's alright, your heart was in the right place. And I'm sure you're skilled enough to have succeeded if I hadn't been teleported to that ground, ” he told her with a smile “and boy am I glad that you're the one that I still found you in this forest.”

_I wish I could thank that weird guy from before, but he said that he won't recognize me, so I guess I can't._

“Does that mean you still have an opening in your team?” Pyrrha asked him jokingly, giving him a friendly punch on the shoulder.

“Yeah…” he gave her a tired but glad smile “I can make an opening for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are here it is, the final update in my rapid fire update spree! It had to end someday, and that day is today. I haven't started working on chapter 6 yet, but I've got something good coming up as we start getting into the action in the Emerald Forest. I plan to make this arc wither last a bit more or make bigger chapters to focus more on character interactions and literal team building, also maybe add in some extra Grimm fights.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guy enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> See ya next update!


	6. Timely Meetings

“You know, you could’ve made this safety net a little more stable.”

“Oh shut up. I couldn’t be assed to read the instructions all the way through. What’s important is that we’re alive, and to be honest you won’t even really remember this rough-ish landing. This shit is nothing compared to some of the fights you’ll have in Ms. Hotwitch’s class.”

“Hey, no spoilers!”

“And speaking of hot blondes, I just had the most intimate run-in with one of those on the way here. It was some crazy shit, my man, just like one of those tropey as fuck Mistralan anime. Shit was insane, dude, I wanted to burst out laughing, but couldn’t have the chill dude reputation die in a first encounter like that, so I decided to freak them out lil bit by being playful. Not like I was lying tho, all the blonds in our school are hot, and they were no exception.”

“Wait, who did you encounter?” Dave asked, finally giving enough of a damn to finally jump off the safety net that he had set up for himself. Or rather _will_ set up for himself.

“You said it yourself, no spoilers” future Dave rebutted, with a sly smile only someone amused by their knowledge of the future would have. “Definitely set up a hell of a first impression on them. They did a good job of never mentioning it to me or anyone else after that. I think I’m gonna tease them a bit about it now that I know who they are.”

“Do you think they remember?” Dave asked his future self in a bit of doubt.

“Oh fuck yeah dude, this was a hell of a first impression. It’ll be a hell of a callback, I’ll totally do it during lunch.”

“Nice” Dave gave his future self a high five.

“And that’s my cue to go. Good luck in your fights here in the Emerald Forest. You’re gonna need it” future Dave warned ominously before disappearing in a flash of red.

 _Why am I such a prick?_ Dave thought to himself, but he already knew the answer. It was just fun to tease his past selves like that, which is why he’ll probably never stop.

Deciding to just leave the safety net where he’ll eventually put it, Dave made his way north in search of the so called temple and the artifacts. That and a partner, which he planned on being pedantically selective about. If anyone who was not Jade, Rose, or John made eye contact with him, he was gonna argue that since he had shades on it doesn’t count, sorry I don’t make the rules of how eyes work.

Of course, if he _did_ make eye contact with any of his three friends he wasn’t gonna take off his shades, but in that case he’d make an exception on the rules of how eyes work because he made that rule in the first place, sorry kids that’s just how the world works.

As he made his way northwards the sound of a charging animal filled his ears. He stopped in place for a couple of seconds to determine the origin of the sound only to have the bush from the left behind him explode outwards as a boarbatusk tried to gore him like like a shish kebab.

Unfortunately for the boar-like Grimm, Dave was already basically immune to the art of the surprise attack ever since he voluntarily undertook Dirk’s three month “constant vigilance” program.

Dave drew his half-sword without looking at the monster and sidestepped the charge, reaching out the blade to scrape it at the side of the beast, using its own momentum against it, leaving it with a gaping wound on its side.

The boarbatusk skid to a halt and turned its furious red glare to the boy who evaded its attack.

“I’ll give you props, pork-chop, if it had been anyone else you might’ve scored yourself a pretty nasty kill.” Dave taunted getting himself into a two-handed stance “Boss might’ve granted you a pay raise and given you a nice slap on the back, and you’d go home happy with good news to your wife, Bacon, and the two kids, Wiener and Sausage.”

The Grimm gave a hateful snort and began to paw the ground, ready for another charge.

“For their sake I hope they’ve got life insurance” Dave quipped before both sides sprung into action.

The boarbatusk didn’t do a normal charge this time around, deciding instead to roll into a ball and attempt to squash him like a rolling boulder.

Dave retaliated by sidestepping again and this time extending his weapon into long sword form, making a powerful swing at the beast’s other exposed side, giving him a scar to match the first one.

When the beast turned to face Dave again, he was already upon it, jumping into the air and coming down with a powerful downward swing that cut one of the boar’s tusks clean off. The grimm retaliated by swinging its head at Dave and hitting him with its remaining tusk.

Dave attempted to parry the blow, but was driven back by the sheer strength of the creature.

The monster wanted to capitalize on that advantage and headbutted Dave in the chest, knocking the boy prone, but not disarming him.

Certain of its victory, the Grimm reared its front paws backwards, intent on crushing Dave with its own body-weight, only to have the boy get up in a burst of movement and impale the Grimm cleanly though its belly.

With a push from Dave, the monster fell on its back and began to dissolve into mist.

Poor Wiener and Sausage were now fatherless. And how could Bacon ever hope to raise maintain a household like that with only half the income! Dave really hoped Pork-Chop here had the life insurance policy.

Rest in pieces Pork-Chop, baited into the classic Strider boar-slaying technique. Feigning an opening is a great way to have a boarbatusk present its weak point willingly as it attempts to crush you for good. When all they can see is the kill, they are blinded by their own blood-lust.

Not a bad bout if Dave may say so himself. Blocking that tusk really had his bones rattle but he was proud that he wasn't overpowered. Strength wasn't really his strongest feature, as Dave relied more on his natural dexterity and nimble body to dodge and parry and look for openings.

But before he could continue the review of his own handiwork, another boarbatusk charged into the clearing.

Dave had barely fell into his stance again when he noticed that the Grimm hadn't seen him yet.

That was, of course, due to the fact that the monster currently had two giant needles poking out of where its red eyes should be.

And attached to those needles were two glowing violet strings that led to the top of the beast where a familiar person rode the creature with confidence, pulling at the needles.

The girl wore a black and purple striped top with golden spaghetti straps over a solid black undershirt. She had a flowing purple skirt tied to her waist with a golden rope-like belt with a skeleton emblazoned on it.

If the style of dress wasn't already pretty familiar to him then the blonde hair with the golden headband, violet eyes and confident smirk that looked very fitting on the fair skinned girl was the definite giveaway.

She maintained her balance on the furious creature as it thrashed about the clearing with reckless abandon as she sadistically pulled at the needles, guiding the monster to smash its head against trees and rocks, making cracks appear on its bone-like mask.

When she was done with her fun, she jumped off the boarbatusk with a youth roll and pulled at the strings, making the needles return from the eye sockets back to her hand, also dragging the creature as to make it fall on its side.

She the walked calmly to the other side of the fallen creature that was still twitching on the floor and faced its now exposed belly. She smiled to herself before looking at Dave right in the eyes for the first time and winking.

And then she pointed one of the needles at the Grimm and a beam of white light exploded forwards, piercing all the way through the boarbatusk and making it disappear into black mist almost instantly.

Yeah he was definitely looking at Rose Lalonde.

“I recommend you stop gaping, Dave, you'll end up eating a fly otherwise” came the refined teasing from her black painted lips.

Dave could hear his jaw close with a click. Damn it, he really had been gaping.

Dave felt pretty glad that he would be partnering up with a friend, but at the same time.

 _Why did it have to be her?_ He lamented, mourning the loss of his peace of mind knowing that he'd be psychologically probed and teased at every opportunity.

Rose was the sister he never had, and that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

He suppressed his desire to sigh “I guess at least I won't have to worry about dying if I'm going to have _you_ by my side for the next four years.”

“Trying to find a silver lining in having to work with me, are you Strider? I'm hurt.” Rose complained, but the smile on her face said otherwise “Haven't I been a good friend to you in these past years? Helping you work out your interpersonal problems with your brother and other such things?”

She laid a hand on his shoulder and he looked into her eyes. He could see beyond her amusement and know that she was glad to have met him in person at last.

“Yeah, ” he responded curtly and risked a genuine smile before sharing a warm embrace with his long time friend “you've been a good friend. It's good to see you.”

They separated after a couple of seconds, none of them being the type to drag on physical affection.

“Met any of the others yet?” Dave asked his new partner, trying to see if she had any better luck than him in tracking down their other friends before initiation.

“I met John in the ballroom yesterday. He was making quite the ruckus with some of the new friends he made” Rose recounted in amusement.

“Ouch, so the dork had already ditched his search for us in favor of new friends. This stings a little bit” Dave complained with not really any ounce of seriousness in his voice.

“On the contrary” Rose decided to dignify his joking statement with a refutation anyway “John was quick to ditch whatever it was that he had been doing as soon as he caught sight of me and rushed to give me a very tight hug. It was… nice” a fond smile bloomed on Rose's face as she broke eye contact with him for the briefest of moments.

“Anyway, he would've probably did the same to you if he had caught sight of you in that moment instead. You know how John is” she continued with a chuckle.

“Heh, the big dweeb” Dave regarded fondly “Any luck on the Harley front?”

Rose shook her head “Nothing. Which is surprising all things considered. How hard is it to catch sight of a girl with stark white dog ears on the top of her head?”

“Maybe she's hiding it with a bow or something?” Dave suggested jokingly.

Rose snorted “Ah yes, like that kind of piss poor disguise would ever work. But no, Jade has no real reason to hide her faunus heritage. She's from Vacuo, remember? She's probably never faced discrimination first hand, plus she's too proud of her ears for that.”

“Yeah I know, I know”

“Right, now that our pleasantries have been exchanged let us focus on the mission,” Rose decided, turning her body northwards “we should hurry before all the interesting relics are gone.”

Dave nodded silently at that.

With Rose leading the way, the duo started their trek to temple.

* * *

 

To say Weiss Schnee was unhappy with her partnership was an understatement. After an unsatisfying clash with a pack of beowolves that had her almost impaling Ruby and then setting fire to the forest, Weiss was livid.

“How can you not have possibly deduced that you had to warn me before jumping in front of my charge!?”

“It's just that I could've taken them all out on my own. I didn't even consider that you might've wanted a shot at them” Ruby mumbled petulantly.

“I charged first!” Weiss replied, outraged and befuddled “You were supposed to take a cue from that, you dunce!”

“Stop yelling at me!” Ruby shouted back in complaint.

“Then stop being such a child! Ugh, why did I have to end up with you of all people. I even had a list of people that seemed like good options, but it was just my luck to come across one of the list of incompetents” Weiss bemoaned her luck.

“Oh you and me, sister! There's tons of other people I'd rather have as a partner. I would've been fine with Yang, or Jaune, or Jade or even-”

Ruby was interrupted by the rising sound of a yell that became closer and closer until something burst through the canopy of the trees and hit the ground hard, lifting up a cloud of dust.

“John!” her partner exclaimed surprised as the figure on the ground groaned and turned over on his back and revealed himself to, indeed, be John.

He wasn’t wearing those stupid pajamas this time around, instead going with a hoodie of the same blue color and a white shirt with a weird slime creature printed on it, and some khaki shorts. The whole ensemble was now dirtied due to the dust.

“John, are you alright?” said Ruby worriedly as she ran up to his side, helping him sit up. He looked to be fine, his aura absorbing most if not all of the damage that he should’ve taken.

“Ouch… yeah, I’m fine Ruby, thanks” he gave her partner a genuine smile despite his wincing as he tried to get on his feet. Weiss found herself helping the boy get steady as he almost stumbled. “Oh hi Weiss! I didn’t see you there. Might be the concussion” he joked, but still looked a bit woozy.

Weiss was a bit worried about his unsteadiness, but she had more important questions to ask, like “Why did you fall out of the sky? Don’t tell me we just witnessed your landing strategy.”

“Pfft, no…” John dismissed, but for some reason it just didn’t feel genuine “... I mean, if you want to be technical, then _possibly._ Like this is the first time I touched the ground after launch”

“How!?” Weiss asked incredulously “Initiation started fifteen minutes ago! There’s no way you could’ve been falling for that long”

“Oh I just kept gliding around using my semblance! I was trying to look down on the forest trying to find my friends or the temple, but the canopy was too dense for me to get a proper look. Guess luck is on my side since I managed to find you both. Since you were traveling together I guess that means you’re partners?”

“Yeah, unfortunately” came the grumbling response of Ruby, as if _she_ was the one that had any right to complain “But wait, you said you could use your semblance to glide around, right?”

“I can straight up fly too, but that uses up my Aura pretty quickly” John confirmed.

“Then why did you have such a rough landing?” her partner questioned, and Weiss would’ve deemed it was a pretty good question if she wasn’t too proud to admit it.

“Oh right! That asshole up there shot me down” John’s mouth opened in a dangerous looking grin as he pointed upwards to the sky, only for the shadow of a huge avian Grimm to pass over them.

“Nevermore!” Ruby shouted, not in fear, but in excitement. Weiss could already feel a headache coming.

“Ruby, I do not like the look in your eyes” Weiss commented as the shadow in the sky got lower and lower, but also continued moving forward, gaining some distance.

“I have an idea!” Ruby said in response, a devious smile forming on her face.

“And I _absolutely_ do not like the sound of that!” Weiss complained again, but it was useless.

“Come on, just follow me!” she said and started running in the direction of the nevermore without using her Semblance. She was pretty fast regardless.

“John, please tell me you’re not going to go along with her foolishness” she turned to the boy who she had considered for partnership if Pyrrha wasn’t available. Her tone was hopeful, like he’d listen to the voice of reason, but the giddiness on his face just dashed her hopes to the nine hells.

“I’m sorry Weiss, but I’m the type of guy that goes with the flow,” he smiled infuriatingly at her “besides, how awful can her plan be?”

He started running after Ruby before looking back and looking at her expectantly, urging her to come along.

Ugh, fine. She started running along, using her glyphs to catch up to Ruby, and by the gust of wind she felt before he fell in line with her, John had used his Semblance as well.

“So what’s the plan Ruby?” John asked as the treeline started to recede and they entered some rocky terrain.

“We’re going to catch a ride on that nevermore!” Ruby declared in excitement as the neared the edge of what seemed to be cliff. Weiss and Ruby had stuck to higher ground in the hopes of getting a glimpse at the location of the temple, but they had been out of luck.

Now as the nevermore seemed to seek a lower flight pattern, it was just beyond the cliff and almost below its altitude.

Beside her, John winced looked at Weiss apologetically “Yeah that really is a stupid plan” he agreed with her, and Weiss’ hope that maybe they’d stop returned.

Except it was already too late and they were at the edge of the cliff, with Ruby having activated her Semblance and jumping off, managing to land and get a grip on the flying Grimm who screeched in complaint.

Resigning herself to reality she attempted to gain the most speed possible with her glyphs and jumped…

She wasn’t gonna make it, god damnit, her semblance wasn’t as good for speed as Ruby’s. She tried making glyphs under her feet to jump further, but she was losing altitude with every extra step.

When it seemed like she was gonna fall below the flight of the nevermore, she felt two arms grab her by beneath her shoulders and lift her up.

She looked upwards to find John smiling down at her, albeit was some strain showing on his face “Almost made it, Weiss Cream” he teased her as he glided the rest of the way and dropped her on the back of the nevermore.

She immediately gripped tightly at the black feathers along with Ruby, but John simply took a seat on the giant bird Grimm’s back, seemly unphased by the strong wind that would’ve blown anyone else right off.

“Soooooooo, this was pointless” John spoke leaning forward and propping his chin on his hand “Like what are we even trying to accomplish up here. I just wanted to knock this asshole out of the sky, not let him take me on a ride!”

“We’re taking a shortcut!” Ruby declared, her enthusiasm never lost “Big Grimm like this bad boy like to go after the largest group of people they can find! Most students probably already found the temple so it will take us right to it!”

“Uh, Ruby, you do know that the students have to take the relics back to the Cliffs after they collect them, right? Why would there be any number of people even sticking around after that!” Weiss shot back, thoroughly irritated with the carelessness and lack of thought put into this plan.

“Hey wait, I think I see the temple!” John interjected before Ruby could even begin to address Weiss’ point “And this stupid bird is flying right towards it. I guess I can see some people there? I can’t tell from this distance”

“Lucky coincidence” Weiss grumbled to herself, refusing to look at Ruby’s victorious grin.

* * *

 

“So chess pieces,” Rose contemplated out loud as she grabbed the black queen piece off the pedestal “didn’t think Ozpin was a man fond of symbolism, but here we are.”

“Any reason why you went straight for the queen piece?” her newly formed partner and long time friend Dave asked from her side as he contemplated the rest of the ruins.

“Why, because it’s the strongest piece in the board, of course” Rose replied with a sly smile “Any other choice of chess piece would’ve been sub-optimal. Except maybe for the knight, perhaps. It does move in an unreplicable manner.”

“My brother would’ve probably have me go for the knight” Dave commented with a bit of amusement.

“Does he value being unreplicable and unpredictable?”

“Nah, he just really _really_ likes horses” he smirked, and Rose let out a dainty laugh at the joke.

Before they continued their friendly banter, a new duo showed up to the temple.

“Aww, we weren’t the first ones here” came the half-hearted complaint of one of the newcomers. She was a relatively tall girl with lilac eyes and long golden blonde hair that reached way beyond her shoulders and all the way to her butt. She wore a tan jacket over a yellow crop top that left her midriff exposed. On her waist she wore a brown belt attached to a brown cloth that covered her thighs in a cowgirl style of clothing, with mini shorts underneath. She also wore bright orange knee-pads and cowboy boots, which really tied the whole athletic cowgirl aesthetic together.

“It’s to be expected, I guess” was the monotone commentary of her goth ninja partner.

“Greetings, to the both of you as well” Rose snarked good-naturedly “Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladona, am I correct?”

“Yeah! How’d you know?” The blonde, Yang, asked her in slight confusion before a flicker of memory showed in her eyes. “No wait, I remember you! From the ballroom, right? You’re friends with that John guy my sister kept telling me about.”

“Guilty as charged” Rose smiled “I’m also friends with this dweeb over here. He’s my partner. Say hello, Dave”

“Sup” Dave greeted with a two finger salute, his face impassive. He was trying to keep up his cool guy persona, but Rose knew he was also a bit shy.

There was an awkward pause in the conversation before Blake cleared her throat.

“Should we… make our way back to the Cliffs?”

“I don’t know Blake, I’m kind of worried about my sister. Maybe we should wait until she shows up.”

“Heads up!” a male shout sounded from above as everybody looked up to see a boy in blue flying uncontrollably while two girls hanged from his arms, gripping tightly.

“Is that John?”

“Is that Ruby?”

“Is that a freaking huge ass crow flying in the sky?”

Rose and Yang turned to look at Dave with dumbfounded looks before hearing a screech that confirmed that, yes, there was a huge ass crow flying in the sky and they had missed it.

Meanwhile John crash-landed on the ground, skidding to a halt right under Rose’s feet, his passengers abandoned before the crash were standing safe and sound on her feet.

“Ruby!” Yang ran over to her sister, giving the younger girl a bear hug.

At the same time, Rose crouched down just as John lifted his head from the ground, his glasses out of place but not broken.

“Hi Rose” he greeted her tiredly and she patted him on the head.

“Hello to you, John” she greeted back in grand amusement as she looked him in the eye.

“Are we partners now?”

“Sorry John, but the lady is taken” came the voice of Dave as he stepped up to them and helped John off the ground while John complained, both about his landing and about his lack of partner.

“I spend the whole time flying around looking for the both of you only to find out you’ve already partnered up _without me_. I feel outraged! I feel bamboozled! I feel smeckledorfed!” he pouted.

“There there, John. You still have Jade to look forward to” Rose tried to reassure him.

“Unless she’s already found a partner herself” Dave pointed out, which earned him a smack from Rose “Ouch”

“I wonder what she’s up to?” John pondered before a very girly scream filled everybody’s ears.

John paused for a second.

“I really hope that’s unrelated to my question.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yoooo, I managed to actually get chapter 6 ready in a week! I usually aim for a biweekly chapter making process so this is unusually inspired of me. Anyway, I don't wanna disappoint you all by taking too long, but I also don't wanna make my work feel too rushed, so please do not hesitate to bring criticisms to the table.
> 
> See y'all in one or two weeks!


End file.
